Practice Makes Perfect: The Serial Founder Advantage Of Ronnie Screwvala, Peyush Bansal

There is a certain confidence that comes with having built, and exited, before. In India’s current startup cycle, the edge of experience is showing up clearly in outcomes.

The IDFC FIRST Private & Hurun India Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025 highlights serial entrepreneurship as a defining characteristic of many of the country’s most valuable post-2000 companies, suggesting that building once is no longer enough — building repeatedly is where momentum compounds.

The report’s dedicated Serial Entrepreneurs section shows a small but influential group of founders who have launched multiple ventures, often across sectors.

Leading the list is Rajoshi Ghosh, who has founded eight companies, including Hasura, PromptQL and Find A Kadai. Close behind are three founders with six ventures each — Harsimarbir Singh, Tanmai Gopal and Ronnie Screwvala.

Screwvala’s six companies span education, media, sports and social impact, placing him among the most prolific repeat founders on the list.

A larger cluster of founders has built five companies each, including Lenskart's Peyush Bansal, INDMoney's Ashish Kashyap, Infra.Market's Souvik Sengupta and Physics Wallah's Prateek Maheshwari.

The serial entrepreneurship data also cuts across age and industry. Veteran founders such as Ashok Soota, who has built four companies including MindTree and Happiest Minds, sit alongside younger repeat founders who have launched multiple ventures within a decade.

This mix suggests that serial entrepreneurship is less about lifecycle stage and more about pattern recognition — knowing when to pivot, when to double down and when to exit.

The data indicates that serial entrepreneurs are spread across sectors rather than concentrated in one industry. Financial services remains the largest sector on the list, but software & services has seen the strongest year-on-year growth, adding five companies in 2025. Retail, education, healthcare and media also feature repeat founders among their most valuable firms.

The Hurun list does not treat serial entrepreneurship as anecdotal. These founders are building again, at scale, often with larger balance sheets, stronger investor backing and clearer institutional structures than their first ventures.

The report also highlights that 102 founders and 53 companies are new entrants this year. Data also shows that nearly 95% of the companies on the Top 200 list have external investors, and many serial founders have benefited from easier access to capital across ventures. The cumulative value of all companies on the list stands at Rs 42 lakh crore in 2025, up 15% from the previous year.