Meet Kailash Katkar, school dropout who once earned Rs 400, now leads Rs 1,40,000 crore company

Many rags-to-richest stories inspire millions of people every day. There are many entrepreneurs who have built giant empires with their rigorous and sheer hard work and talent. One such name is Kailash Katkar. Kailash Katkar is the founder of India's leading cybersecurity company, Quick Heal. Now Quick Heal has become a giant and earns over Rs 1,40,000 crore but there was a time when Kailash's situation stood at below average. 

Born in a humble household in Rahimatpur, Maharashtra Kailash has to quit school after facing difficulties in Class 9. Imagine how difficult it must have been for a Class 9 dropout, without any degree to even land a decent job. But he did not lose hope and bagged a job at a radio and calculator repair shop where he was paid a meagre Rs 400 per month salary. In 1991, Kailash opened his own shop with an investment of Rs 15,000 in Pune. 

In the meantime, Kailash's brother was struggling to continue his education due to his family's financial constraints. But Katkar is insistent on him going for higher education. Hence, he contributed to paying for his brother's Rs 5,000 fee to study computer science. 

In the meantime, Kailash understood that the future would be ruled by computers. He saw a computer for the first time at the age of 22 at a bank and he invested Rs 50,000 in buying a computer. 

In 1993, Kailash founded the CAT Computer Services company which provided repair and maintenance of computers. It was during this time, he understood that most computers that came for repair were virus-infected. It struck a chord and he asked his younger brother to focus on the field of antiviruses. 

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Both Kailash and Sanjay Katkar then developed the anti-virus from their repair shop and tested it on infected computers. Gradually, the Katkar brothers started shifting their focus from hardware repair to antivirus software. In 1995, they launched the first Quick Heal product for Rs 700. 

This opened a plethora of opportunities and possibilities for them. They saw some difficult times but always turned their fate. Today, Kailash Katkar is the MD and CEO of the company and Sanjay Katkar is the Joint MD of the firm. The company earns a net worth of over Rs 1,40,000 crore as of 2023.