New Delhi: IDFC FIRST Private Banking, in collaboration with Hurun India, has released the third edition of the ‘IDFC FIRST Private & Hurun India Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025’. The list recognises India’s 200 most valuable self-made companies founded in or after the year 2000, ranked on the basis of company value—market capitalisation for listed firms and valuation for unlisted entities.
The rankings are based on data as of September 25, 2025, and include only companies headquartered in India. Government-owned enterprises and Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies have been excluded from the list.
The combined valuation of the 200 companies featured stands at approximately ₹42 lakh crore, with entrepreneurs from 51 Indian cities represented. For the first time since the inception of the ranking, Eternal founder Deepinder Goyal (42) secured the top position, surpassing D-Mart founder R.K. Damani (70). Bengaluru emerged as the leading city with 88 entrepreneurs on the list, followed by Mumbai with 83 and New Delhi with 52, together accounting for more than half of the total entries.
From a sectoral perspective, financial services led the rankings with 47 companies, followed by software and services (28), healthcare (27) and retail (20). Notably, 189 of the 200 companies have received support from external investors, while the remaining firms have grown independently.
Vikas Sharma, Head – Wealth Management and Private Banking at IDFC FIRST Bank, said the report reflects India’s growing stature as a global entrepreneurship hub. “The third edition of the IDFC FIRST Private & Hurun India Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025 is a celebration of India’s startup and entrepreneurial journey. It highlights the stories of entrepreneurs who are reshaping the country’s economic direction through hard work, innovation and a relentless pursuit of excellence,” he said.
Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, noted that the list underscores the significant contribution of self-made entrepreneurs to India’s economic growth over the past 25 years. He pointed out that the total value of these companies is equivalent to USD 469 billion—around a quarter of the value of India’s 300 most valuable family-owned businesses. He also highlighted the rapid rise of companies founded after 2020, whose combined value has reached ₹78,000 crore, and the growing investment in employees, with total employee benefits increasing from ₹54,000 crore to ₹57,200 crore this year.
Methodology
The IDFC FIRST Private & Hurun India Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025 recognises the 200 most valuable companies founded in India since 2000. The ranking is based on company valuation rather than the personal wealth of founders. Listed companies are valued based on market capitalisation on the cut-off date, while unlisted companies are valued by benchmarking them against comparable listed peers using standard industry metrics such as price-to-earnings, price-to-sales, EV-to-sales and EV-to-EBITDA. Financial data has been sourced from the latest annual reports, audited statements and recent funding rounds to ensure consistency and accuracy.
