Nikhil Kamath and Nithin Kamath, co-founders of Zerodha and brothers, are among India’s top ten philanthropists, in addition to being among the country’s richest entrepreneurs. According to the EdelGive Hurun Philanthropy List 2022, their donations increased 308 percent to Rs 100 crore in FY22, making them the ninth-largest individual philanthropists in India.

Nikhil Kamath is the youngest philanthropist on the list and is 36 years old. Disaster relief is the Kamath Brothers’ top charity priority, but they also support issues related to sustainability and the environment. Hurun India said that overall donations for ‘Environment and Sustainability’ grew by 46% to Rs 193 crore in FY22.

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Who is Nikhil Kamath?

Nikhil Kamath, India’s youngest billionaire, was born on September 5, 1986, in Shimoga, Karnataka, India. The 36-year-old dropped out of school after class 10 at the age of 16, which is unusual for someone from a middle-class family. His mother, Revathi Kamath, taught Carnatic classical music, and his father, Raghuram Kamath, worked in a state-owned bank.

Nikhil soon started a small business selling used phones. However, his mother believed he was too young to run a business, so he was forced to stop that business.

After dropping out of school, he began working nighttime shifts at a call centre for a wage of Rs. 8000 per month. He used to study stock trading in the mornings. In 2004, Kamath quit his position at the call centre and co-founded Kamath Associates with his brother Nithin.

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Nikhil Kamath married his now ex-wife, Amanda Puravankara, in a public ceremony on April 18, 2019. The wedding took place in Florence, Italy. According to sources, Puravankara is an entrepreneur who works as a director at Provident Housing Ltd in Bangalore.

He and his older brother Nithin, co-founded Zerodha, the largest trading platform in India by volume, in 2010 in Bangalore. While it took Zerodha a few years to get its initial 1,000 customers, it now has 4.5 million active monthly users and is the nation’s largest trading platform by volume. The name is a mix of “zero” and “rodha,” the Sanskrit word for the barrier.

Kamath has made numerous investments in multinational companies as an investor. The reports say that in 2016, he was also listed on Forbes’ list of the 30 under 30 in the finance industry.