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Indian entrepreneurs Radha Vembu, Co-founder of Zoho Corporation, and BYJU’S Founder and CEO Byju Raveendran were noted as some of the most wealthy persons by the M3M Hurun Global Rich List of 2023.

Zoho Corporation co-founder Radha Vembu was named the second richest self-made woman in the world in the software and services industry.

She co-founded Zoho (then AdventNet Inc)—India’s largest bootstrapped software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm—with her brother Sridhar Vembu in 1996. The IIT-M graduate currently serves as a product manager of Zoho Mail, an email service provider from Zoho’s stable.

According to the list, Vembu moved up 103 ranks from the last year. She amassed a net worth of $4 billion, mostly due to the stake she owns in Zoho Corporation. As of March 31, 2022, Radha owned a 47.8% stake in Zoho—currently estimated worth $2.2 billion by Forbes—making her the largest shareholder in the company. In contrast, her brother owns just 5% of the company.

A recent Forbes report noted that Sridhar Vembu’s wife, Pramila Srinivasan, accused him of transferring a “big chunk of his Zoho stake in a complex transaction that moved Zoho’s intellectual property to India and eventually placed the majority of the shares with his sister and her husband, without ever telling her”.

This reportedly went against local California laws regarding the division of assets between two individuals in a marriage.

Sridhar Vembu dismissed these allegations as “unfounded” and denied transferring his shares.

Byju Raveendran, Co-founder of edtech decacorn, BYJU’S also saw his and his family jump 1,005 positions to rank 994th this year. The family has wealth worth $3.3 billion with Raveendran now counted as the second-richest entrepreneur from the education sector globally.

While BYJU’S became an early-mover in the edtech space, it is also caught up in a number of issues involving its finances, unpaid loans, increasing complaints from customers about unethical selling practices, and layoffs amid an allegedly harsh working environment. 

With a total wealth of $82 billion, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, leapfrogged Gautam Adani, Founder and Chairman of Adani Group, to be crowned as the richest Indian on the list. 

The Adani Group has been under fire and intense scrutiny after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of financial misconduct, price rigging, and fraud. Adani’s wealth is down 60% from his hayday and was briefly the second-richest individual in the world before the publishing of the report.

According to the M3M Hurun Global Rich List of 2023, India is home to the third-largest number of billionaires at 187, down 28 from the previous year. This number would go up to 217 if Indian-origin billionaires are added to the list.

Mumbai had the highest number of billionaires (66), followed by Delhi (39) and Bengaluru (21).