Confluent's Neha Narkhede enters Hurun's ten richest Indian women list

Confluent head India's wealthiest new entrant in Hurun rankings, Roshni Nadar Malhotra tops second year in a row

Neha Narkhede, co-founder of data streaming technology business Confluent, is the richest among the new entrants to join the list of India’s wealthiest women.

The 38-year-old, with a net worth estimated at Rs 13,380 crore, was ranked eighth — one place ahead of Vandana Lal of Dr Lal PathLabs, the only other new member among the top 10 — in the Leading Wealthy Women 2021 list compiled by research firm Hurun.

In June 2021, Confluent rose 25 per cent on the Nasdaq, reaching a market valuation of US $11.4 billion. Narkhede worked as a software engineer at LinkedIn before launching Confluent, where she contributed to the development of Apache Kafka, an open-source messaging system designed to handle the networking site’s large data input.

With a net worth of Rs 84,330 crore, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCL Technologies, has topped the Hurun list for the second year in a row. According to the list, Falguni Nayar, promoter of FSN E-Commerce, overtook Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon to become the richest self-made woman in India with a wealth of Rs 57,520 crore.

The Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List 2021, published by Hurun Report, is the third annual list of India’s wealthiest women entrepreneurs and professional managers. The wealth calculations are as of December 31 last year and feature 97 Indian women from four countries and 29 cities. With 25 women entrepreneurs, New Delhi has surpassed Mumbai as the preferred city of residence. Their total wealth was Rs 4.16 trillion, which grew by 53 per cent year-on-year. A total of 48 individuals, up from 10, are worth Rs 1,000 crore or more.

Pharmaceuticals, healthcare and consumer goods were the sectors with the highest number of individuals making it to the list. Among the eight start-up founders, Divya Gokulnath (36) of BYJU’s and Ruchi Kalra (38) of OfBusiness have registered wealth of Rs 4,550 crore and Rs 2,600 crore, respectively. Nine out of the 20 women aged 40 years or younger are self-made. Kanika Tekriwal, 33, of JetSetGo is the youngest self-made woman in the list.

“The Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List serves as a barometer to understand the progress of women-led wealth creation in India and this year’s list clearly states that India’s leading women wealth creators are unstoppable. Around 25 per cent of the list has been replaced with new entrants,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher of Hurun India.

Four unicorns co-founded by women are also listed in the list. With a net worth of Rs 1,540 crore, Neha Bansal, 40, co-founder of Lenskart.com, debuted on the list at 35th rank. Lenskart purchased Hyderabad-based DailyJoy in April 2021 to expand engineering and technology operations. Smita Deorah, 44, co-founder of LEAD School, ranked 39th with a net worth of Rs 1,390 crore. LEAD School raised Rs 760 crore in a Series E fundraising in January 2022, valued at Rs 8,340 crore. Saumya Singh Rathore, 34, is one of the youngest new additions to the list, with wealth worth Rs 520 crore. She is the co-founder of WinZo, a social gaming app that offers monetary benefits and prizes to players.

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