Mumbai-based brothers Bhavin & Divyank Turakhia debut on Forbes India’s 100 Richest list
Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia. Picture: Bhavin/Facebook
Forbes, on Thursday, announced its annual list of India’s 100 Richest People. While there was little doubt about who would end up on the top spot, the list saw six new entrants, including Mumbai-based serial entrepreneurs, Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia.
Their company, Media.net, was recently acquired by a Chinese consortium in an all-cash transaction of $900 million. The Consortium was led by Zhiyong Zhang, Chairman of Beijing Miteno Communication Technology, a technology, media and telecom (TMT) business listed on the GEM Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Following the sale, Bhavin (36) and Divyank’s (34) net worth rose to a staggering $1.3 billion, earning them a place in the Forbes India’s 100 Richest list. The brothers were ranked 95th on the list.
Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia founded Directi in 1998 when they were still teenagers. They sold their web presence business, which included four brands, to Nasdaq-listed Endurance Group in 2014 for $160 million.
The money earned from the Media.net sale will reportedly go into a diversified pool of global investment funds and other businesses co-owned by the brothers.
Meanwhile, Flipkart’s founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who had debut on the Forbes 2015 list, are no longer a part of this year’s list.
With a net worth of $22.7 billion, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani retained the top spot on the list for the 9th year in the row. Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi was ranked a distant second with a wealth of $16.9 billion.
The minimum amount required to make the list was USD 1.25 billion, up from USD 1.1 billion in 2015.
