16-05-2025
Meet man, who was born in Pakistan, studied in India, could barely walk due to Polio, but built a Rs 42500 crore empire, he is..., business is...
Romesh Wadhwani was born on August 25, 1947, just ten days after the Partition of India, in a Sindhi family in Karachi, now in Pakistan. Right after his birth, his family was forced to flee for their lives, leaving everything behind. They arrived in Delhi as refugees and had to start over from nothing. Despite these early hardships, today, at 78, Wadhwani is recognized as one of the world's leading tech entrepreneurs.
Life was not very easy for Romesh as at the age of two, he was struck by polio which severely limited his ability to walk. But this did not stop him from dreaming big and achieving his goal. He was always bright student. He earned his BTech from IIT-Bombay and later moved to the United States in 1969 for higher studies. He got admission to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he completed his master's and later a PhD in electrical engineering.
When Romesh landed in the US for his studies, he had only USD 2.50 in his pocket which is about Rs. 191 in today's value. However, with his hard work and determination, he managed to secure student loans, complete his education, and go on to build a successful business empire. Romesh launched his first company at 25
At the age of 25, Romesh Wadhwani launched his first company Compuguard Corporation in 1972. The company developed software for energy management and security systems in commercial buildings. This was during a time when the US was facing a major energy crisis, and the prices of oil and gas were skyrocketing. Over the next 10 years, he built the company into a USD 10 million business and eventually sold it.
While most entrepreneurs in California's Silicon Valley were busy innovating personal computers, disk drives, and semiconductors, Romesh made one of the boldest moves of his life. He left everything behind in Pittsburgh and moved with his wife and four-year-old daughter to Silicon Valley. There, he started his third company and it changed everything. The company, Aspect Development, founded in 1991, became a massive success. In 1999, he sold it for a staggering USD 9.3 billion.
In a career spanning over 50 years, Romesh Wadhwani has founded or led around 40 companies. Today, he runs the Symphony Technology Group, a private equity firm that controls 18 companies specializing in software, data, and artificial intelligence. The group generates more than USD 2.8 billion in annual revenue.
Romesh Wadhwani's current net worth is estimated at USD 5 billion (around Rs.42,500 crore). He ranks 222nd on Forbes' list of the richest 400 people in the world.
