Meet man whose single winning bet made him one of India’s youngest billionaires with net worth Rs 23000 crore

48-year-old Karthik Sarma is one of the youngest self-made men in India. Despite his massive wealth and inspiring success story, Sarma stays away from the limelight and is not a flamboyant billionaire. Having built his fortune in the US after leaving India with an IIT degree, Sarma is known for having a rise highlighted by what is among the most successful bets in recent times. 

Sarma made as much as $2 billion from a single bet in 2021, nearly a decade and a half after 
beginning his company. He has made his name as one of the world’s leading hedge fund managers and commands a net worth of nearly Rs 24,000 crore ($2.9 billion) in 2023. 

Sarma did his schooling in India and then did engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. He then left for the US where he pursued Masters in Science from Princeton University. He began his career with the global consulting MNC McKinsey & Company in 1998. He then joined Tiger Global Management where he climbed the corporate ladder to become the Managing Director (MD). 

In 2006, Sarma founded SRS investment which today manages a portfolio of around $10 billion (over Rs 82,600 crore) today. In 2010, Sarma’s firm made a crucial bet buying car rental company Avis’ stock. The value grew by 456 percent in 11 years. Sarma became a billionaire in 2022. Interestingly, at one point in his career before making it big, he was dubbed as the “most non-talented partner”.