Shashvat Nakrani: An IIT-Delhi dropout who became Indias youngest self-made individual

Shashvat Nakrani, a 23-year-old from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, has many feathers in his cap. At a very young age, he achieved many extraordinary feats.

An IIT-Delhi dropout, Shashvat Nakrani is one of the three co-founders of the payment app BharatPe, which is the country’s fastest-growing fintech startup.  

So, how did this happen? 

He was in his 3rd year at IIT-Delhi, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Textile Technology when the entrepreneurial bug bit him. At that time, he recognized a business opportunity to build a payment gateway, one that merchants could easily access and did not eat up their margins.  

To cater to these requirements, he made use of the interoperability feature of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). And that’s how ‘BharatPe’ came into existence.  

Launched in 2018, BharatPe enables merchants to conduct transactions for any other payment app like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, and over 150 other UPI apps with just one QR code.  Today, it has expanded its reach to 100 cities across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities. With initiatives like ‘12% Club’, a peer-to-peer product, BharatPe continues to cater to the unmet needs of the merchants in the country.

Shashvat’s sacrifice of job security and certainty from being an IIT pass out to build a start-up, and to take it to such great heights within such a short period is no mean feat.  

As per the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich list 2021 - “13 people born in the 90s made the list, all self-made. New Delhi based Shashvat Nakrani, 23, of payment app BharatPe is the youngest self-made individual.”  

Not many people make it to this list, let alone be the youngest person in it. This is what makes Shashvat’s recognition as the ‘youngest self-made individual’ well deserved.