Business / Isha, Akash Ambani, BYJU'S Founder on Fortune's '40 Under 40' in tech list

NDTV : Sep 03, 2020, 11:11 AM
New York: Fortune magazine has included Ambani scions and Jio board directors Akash and Isha in the "40 under 40" list of the most influential young leaders for the year under the technology section.

"They say data is the new oil--and when it comes to Reliance Industries, India's largest company, that's literally the case. The 47-year-old conglomerate amassed a fortune in petrochemicals before dominating India's mobile connectivity market with Jio, a low-cost wireless carrier it debuted in 2016. Akash and Isha Ambani are the twin children of Reliance's chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, who happens, not coincidentally, to be India and Asia's richest man," Fortune magazine said in an article.

The US-based publication said that after Isha and Akash Ambani joined the Jio board, the valuation of the business rose to USD 65 billion.

"Reliance is a family business. Akash joined the company in 2014 after receiving an economics degree from Brown University. Isha joined a year later, following stints at Yale, Stanford, and McKinsey. As Jio board members, they helped seal the company's recent megadeal with Facebook--USD 5.7 billion for a 9.99 per cent stake--plus major follow-on investments from marquee tech titans like Google, Qualcomm, and Intel. The flurry of investments lent the business an eye-popping USD 65 billion private valuation," it said.

"Recently, Akash and Isha helped launch Jio Mart, a venture that aims to challenge Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart for command of India''s massive and fast-growing online shopping market," Fortune magazine added.

The siblings along with their younger brother, Anant, 25, are training to take on their father's empire.

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