Wipro's Azim Premji along with HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar are the only two businessmen from the technology field to figure in Forbes' "The 100 richest tech billionaires in the world in 2016" list. The list is led by the U.S. leads with 51 billionaires. China finished a distant second with 19 persons.
Azim Premji has taken the 13th spot, while Shiv Nadar is at the 17th spot. The Wipro Chairman's net worth has been pegged at $16 million by Forbes, while Nadar's net worth comes at $11.6 billion.
Premji was ahead of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and Space X. The two Indian tycoons together beat Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Uber's Travis Kalanick among others.
Premji Invests
Ten years since it was founded in 2006, Premji Invests —Azim Premji's private equity holdings—continues its "silent work", deliberately dodging the limelight in spite of 13 investments and one acquisition till date.
"Working quietly since 2006, Premji Invest has built up positions and funded around 40 publicly listed and private companies out of a corpus of $1 billion (Rs4,290 crore)," reads the PE firm's public profile.
US-based database delivery firm Datastax, online life and general insurance comparison portal Policy Bazaar and e-commerce firm Snapdeal are among its earlier investments.
In April 2016, Premji's private equity firm had invested $100 million in India's fifth largest micro-lending entity Equitas Holdings, which attained in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to turn its subsidiaries into Small Finance Bank in September 2015.
Azim Premji's son Rishad Premji heads the third largest IT services exporter's $100 million venture capital arm Wipro Ventures.
The company posted a 6 percent year-on-year decline in net profit for the quarter ended June 2016.
Shiv Nadar and Sanjay Karla Foundation
HCL's Shiv Nadar announced a $500 million investment firm 'Shiv Nadar and Sanjay Karla Associates' (SNSK) in September last year.
The business tycoon, who also heads the private philanthropic Shiv Nadar Foundation which runs educational institutions such as Shiv Nadar University, Shiv Nadar School and SSN group of institutes.
The HCL founder has been considering US listing and owns the skill development firm HCL TalentCare.
HCL Technologies (HCLT) net profit came at Rs. 2,047 crore, a year-on-year rise of 14.8 percent in, for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.
