India’s eCommerce Leaders Join Billionaires’ Club

The founders of Flipkart have made their way to a very exclusive club — one whose members all have a minimum worth of $1 billion.

The Wall Street Journal shares that, for the first time, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (no relation), the cofounders of the online marketplace (the largest in India), are listed on the annual wealth report compiled by the Shanghai-based research firm Hurun Report.

According to Hurun Report, the two men — whose company, WSJ notes, recently received a valuation north of $15 billion — are themselves each worth approximately $1.4 billion and also earned classification on the list as being among the 21 youngest self-made billionaires.

Out of the roughly 2,100 billionaires that Huron Report counted, the Bansals ranked comparatively low — Binny at 1,510 and Sachin at 1,546 — adds the WSJ story. Among other India-based newcomers, Zee TV Founder Subhash Chandra made his debut on the list at 411.

Meanwhile, two other Indians made the top 50 on the billionaire list: Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries — worth $26 billion, according to the report — and Dilip Shanghvi, managing director and founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. — with an estimated worth of $18 billion.

There were also Indian billionaires who slipped in the rankings, the WSJ story goes on to note, including Bharti Enterprises Founder Sunil Bharti Mittal — whose wealth, according to Hurun Report, fell by 47 percent — and Hindalco Industries Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla — whose current worth of $4.9 billion is a 51 percent drop from last year.

As for the top five on Hurun’s billionaires’ list, WSJ reports that Bill Gates maintained his top position from last year, Mexico’s Carlos Slim dropped from number two to number five, with Warren Buffett taking Slim’s previous spot. The outlet notes that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos saw the biggest gain in wealth among the list’s top five, with his $53 billion worth driving him up 18 positions.