Padma Shri Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Born on 29 June 1963 at Delhi Sanjeev Bikhchandani, has completed his school education in 1981 as the student of St. Columba’s School, Delhi and got graduation in Arts from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1984. He went to acquire Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIMA Ahmedabad in 1989.
Soon after completing graduation Sanjeev started working as an executive trainee in an advertisement firm. In the year 1995 Sanjeev founded Info Edge after serving a job of marketing Horlicks at Hindustan Milk food Manufacturers and partnership work of salary surveys and reports. Todays Nauari dot com is considered as the country’s largest web-based employment site but this was started in 1997 with its server located in India.
Indian Sindhi businessman Sanjeev Bikhchandani today is known as founder and executive vice chairman of Info Edge which owns Naukri.com, as well as the co-founder of Ashoka University and the most recent Sindhi achiever who showered with India’s forth highest civilian award Padma Shri in 2020. He is also part of Vision Circle of FYI (Foundation for Young Innovators) and with the investment in projects like 99acres, Policy Bazaar and Zomato Sanjeev has not only bagged Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008 but also considered as unicorn (visionary and daring) investor of India.
Forbes India calculated his net worth $2.1 Billion and included him at 68th rank on the India Rich List 2020 though his real asset is the reputation he earned being a person who has paved the way for Indian startups to come into their own with his insights and support.
If one looks at life of Sanjeev Bikhchandani certainly, he/ she will be forced to conclude with words, Sanjeev is a successful entrepreneur-turned investor. Just have a look at his 30 years journey in trade and industry.
1989: Graduation from IIM Ahmedabad and start working with HMM Ltd.
1990: Established two partnership firms with Kapil Verma.
1990-1991: Did salary surveys and started teaching at Management institutes.
1993: Separated from Kapil Verma (Indmark) and got Info Edge
1995: Info Edge India Pvt. Ltd.
1996-1997: Launched naukari.com with US based server
1998: Helped Chandan Mitra for taking over Pioneer
2000: Info Edge earned Rs. 7.3 Carores from ICICI Venture
2004: Info Edge acquired Jeevansathi.com
2005: Started 99accres.com
2006: Info Edge listed On BSE and NSE
2007: Launched naukari.com
2008: Launched shiksha.com
2010: Officially step down as CEO of Info Edge and invested in Zomato
In an interview recalling olden days of life Sanjeev has said “It was a six-month struggle to get a ₹30,000 overdraft limit from a nationalised bank in 1992. That’s because banks would not lend money if you could not give collateral, which basically meant services companies could not get bank finance,” recalls Bikhchandani. “I didn’t have any money; my father was a retired government doctor and my mother was a homemaker. We had to depend on customer advances and not take our salary.” Today I can say “Successful businesses are built on deep customer insights.”