Start-ups make it to the Rich List this year but lag in charity

Only Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, Ronnie Screwvala, Binny Bansal, and Radha & Sekar Vembu make the cut

Start-up founders have strengthened their presence in the country’s wealthiest list this year but only five have given enough to charity to appear in the Top 95 India Philanthropy list released by Hurun Research and EdelGive Foundation.

A few weeks ago, Hurun Research, in a tie-up with IIFL Securities, had released the India Rich List which featured 13 start-up entrepreneurs based in India in the top 200. But only five qualified on their contribution to philanthropy.  

Yet, according to Hurun’s projections, based on discussions with start-ups and their philanthropy plans, it expects at least five to 20 more founders to join the Top 95 Philanthropy List in the next two years as they move to go public and also shift the focus away from profitability.

The big start-up philanthropists include Nikhil and Nithin Kamath of Zeroda (at number 35); Ronnie Screwvala and family (37); Binny Bansal, the former Flipkart co-founder who sold off his stake to Walmart (59 in the list but he was not in the top 200 of the Rich List; and Radha Vembu (62) and Sekhar Vembu (73) who are both from Zoho start-up.  

The Philanthropy List is limited to the rank of 95 as the cut off taken for it is a  very reasonable Rs 5 crore. In contrast, the IIFL Hurun Rich List of India’s wealthiest included ranks of up to 956 for 2021 where the lowest cut off point to be on the list was Rs 1,000 crore.

The good news is that both Radha Vembu and Sekar Vembu as well as Nikhil and Nitin Kamath have joined the Philanthropy List for the first time this year. They are in the company of actor Amitabh Bachchan, investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, and Sun Pharma’s Dilip Sanghvi who also joined the list for the first time. Last year, Bansal was the new entrant.

However, none of the start-up founders are in the Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore list.   

“In the next two years, there will be five to twenty more start up founders in the Philanthropy List. It is a process of evolution,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher Hurun.

Junaid said that in 2012 there was not a single start-up founder in the Hurun India Rich List. Now there are 73 of them, out of the total of 975. “We will see a lot  more names in the Philanthropy List as more and more go for IPOs and monetize part of their wealth and cash out and also start making profits and getting dividends which they can give,” said Junaid.