Divyank Turakhia started consulting with large companies at the age of 14. It all began when someone at NASSCOM called him in to resolve their internet issue. By the time he was 16, he had earned his first million from a company he had co-founded with his brother, Bhavin, after they borrowed ₹25,000 from their father Today, According to the latest IIFL Wealth Hurun India 40 report, the 39-year-old creator of the ad-tech platform Media.net is India’s wealthiest billionaire under the age of 40, boasting a net worth of ₹12,500 crore ($1.7 billion.
Divyank, who has established numerous successful businesses and achieved remarkable exits in many of them, possesses a knack for recognizing and pursuing lucrative opportunities. In 2016, he sold the six-year-old Media.net to a consortium of Chinese investors for an impressive $900 million, catapulting the brothers’ net worth to $1.3 billion. They have ventured into various sectors, including web hosting, cloud infrastructure, voice and messaging services, and digital payments, with offices in Dubai, Los Angeles, New York, Zurich, and Beijing. However, for this typically middle-class Mumbai native, the journey to success is characterized by hard work and astute business acumen.
The Mumbai Boy Making A Difference
Born in Mumbai in 1982, Divyank grew up with a chartered accountant father and a homemaker mother, who encouraged the brothers to expand their horizons through reading and constantly questioning the status quo. For example, while Divyank enjoyed playing video games, his father encouraged him to take on the challenge of creating one from scratch.. At the age of 13, Divyank, along with his 15-year-old brother Bhavin, developed a business-solution game. “Playing the game was educational. Creating it was an experience,” Divyank told Forbes in an interview.
In fact, this accomplished individual earned his pocket money by completing computer projects for affluent classmates at Arya Vidya Mandir, his school. At the age of 14, he started offering freelance consulting services, and by 1998, he established Directi with financial support from his father With 40 clients in his portfolio, he repaid his father within the first month. He stated, “When we were kids, we thought we could achieve anything. We still do.” By then, he had even purchased the family’s first car, a Santro. By the age of 18, he had bought his parents a better car: a Scorpio.
Divyank proceeded to pursue his B.Com from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics at his mother’s insistence, who wanted him and Bhavin to at least obtain Bachelor’s degrees. Soon after, Divyank began setting up various web services and payments businesses with his brother. The two worked together until 2005 but soon figured they could double their reach by working individually.
In the Big League
In 2010, Divyank launched Media.net, a platform that enables publishers to display ads tailored to the content on their websites.. Talking about his success with Media.net and Mumbai Mirror, he said that persistence is the key difference between winners and losers. “Even when you have everything, you fail. But if you stop, then you have truly failed. Like with Media.net, I failed every day until one day I was successful.”
