Vijay Shekhar Sharma
 |
Vijay Shekhar Sharma | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 July 1978 Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Alma mater | Delhi College of Engineering |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder & CEO of Paytm |
| Spouse |
Mridula Parashar (m. 2015) |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Yash Bharati |
Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born July 15, 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur and billionaire businessman. He is the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of One97 Communications and its consumer brand Paytm.[2][3] He founded Paytm in 2010.[4][5]
In January 2022, the ICANN-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group appointed him as UA Ambassador in India.[6]
Early life and education
Vijay Shekhar was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on 7 June 1978, the third of the four children of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a school teacher, and Asha Sharma, a home maker.[7]
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University).[8] He did his schooling from a Hindi medium school in Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh.[9]
Career
In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for $1 million.[10]
In 2000, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. One97 is the parent company of Paytm, which was launched by Sharma in 2010.[10]
Paytm has over 400 million users who make 25 million transactions daily. In 2018, Sharma got Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett to invest $300 million in the company.[11]
Awards and recognition
- In 2017, he was named the youngest billionaire in India. He was ranked #1567in the list of Forbes's 'The World's Billionaires' list.[12]
- Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2017.[13]
- ET Entrepreneur of the Year, by The Economic Times in 2016[14]
- Ranked by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017.[15]
- In 2017, he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year.[16]
- He received an Honorary doctorate from Amity University, Gurgaon, in 2016[17]
- Sharma was honored with the Yash Bharati, the highest state civilian award of the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2016.[18]
- He was named as the Businessman of the Year at GQ Men of the Year Awards 2016.[19]
- He was conferred with the NDTV Indian of the Year in 2016.[20]
- He was awarded the Impact Person of the Year Award in 2016.[21]
- He was named India's Hottest Business Leader under 40 by The Economic Times in 2015.[22]
- In September 2015, Vijay Shekhar Sharma was named CEO of the Year by SABRE Award.[23]
Personal life
He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma[24] and they have a child.[1] His father was a school teacher.[25] He cites Alibaba's founder Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son of Softbank, as his inspirations.[26] In February 2022, Sharma was arrested by Delhi police for hitting his car into the car of a police officer. He was later released on bail.[27]
Other work
Sharma has been named as the UN Environment's 'Patron for Clean Air', where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness, and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment's global Breathe Life campaign.[28][29]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Forbes profile: Vijay Sekhar Sharma". Forbes. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ "Vijay Shekhar Sharma reappointed as MD & CEO of Paytm till Dec 2027". Economic Times.
- ^ Jog, Natasha (20 August 2015). "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.com.
- ^ "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". weforum.
- ^ "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.
- ^ "Internet panel on languages ropes in Vijay Shekhar Sharma as ambassador". Business Standard. 19 January 2022.
- ^ Tiwari, Mahesh. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". newstrend.news. Newstrend. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
- ^ Sinha, Suveen (20 August 2016). "How PayTM's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chased his dream instead of a degree". Scroll.in.
- ^ a b "The king of cash". Calcutta: The Telegraph.
- ^ "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Forbes. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ Giri, Manish Kumar. "Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma ranked India's youngest billionaire in Forbes's latest list | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ "ET Awards for Corporate Excellence: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chosen as Entrepreneur of the Year". Economic Times. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
- ^ "GQ's Most Influential Young Indians 2017: Digital Disruptors". GQ (Indian edition). 7 July 2017.
- ^ Sacchdeva, Malavika (6 March 2017). "Vijay Shekhar Sharma to be awarded as DQ IT Person of the Year at Digital Economy Conclave". Dataquest.
- ^ "Airtel's Sunil Mittal, Paytm's Vijay Shekar given honorary degrees by Amity University". DNA INDIA.com.
- ^ "Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma goes to meet UP CM Akhilesh Yadav ... in a rickshaw!". The Economic Times. 28 October 2016.
- ^ "GQ Awards 2016 winners list". India.com. 28 September 2016.
- ^ "NDTV confers Indian of the Year Award 2015". United News of India. 3 February 2016.
- ^ "Vijay Shekhar Sharma wins IMPACT Person of The Year 2016 Award". Exchange4media. 14 December 2016.
- ^ "India's Hottest Business Leaders under 40: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma was the youngest engineer from Delhi University". The Economic Times. 19 June 2015.
- ^ "Sabre Awards South Asia". Bestmediainfo. 21 September 2015.
- ^ Upadhyay, Harsh; Tyagi, Gaurav (2 July 2020). "Paytm founder floats 2 new entities for personal investments". Entrackr.
- ^ Punj, Shwweta (4 January 2021). "In college, I didn't understand what the teacher was saying: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma". India Today.
- ^ "Vijay Sharma, Paytm: an for India". Financial Times.
- ^ IANS (13 March 2022). "Paytm CEO was released on bail in Feb after hitting police officer's car". Business Standard India. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
- ^ "Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma named UN Environment's Patron for Clean Air". The Economic Times. 5 December 2017.
- ^ "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Unep.org. 2021.