Meet Ravi Modi, wanted to own a luxury car, built Rs 27,000 crore company with his profits instead

Media-shy business magnate Ravi Modi is the man behind one of the leading ethnic wear lifestyle brands of the country. Modi is the founder of Vedant Fashions, the company which owns several popular brands like ‘Manyavar’, ‘Mohey’, ‘Manthan’, ‘Mebaz’ and ‘Twamev’. He emerged as one of the top wealth gainers of India last year by taking his company to a successful IPO in 2022. Vedant Fashions today has a market cap of Rs 27,660 crore.

Modi started his career as a salesman in his father’s clothes shop as a 13-year-old. Gaining experience first hand, he eventually took over the business. With the legacy business leaving Modi well-placed, he decided to fulfil his dream of buying a luxury Mercedes car in 2002. However, a fateful concentration led him to decide that putting the profits into growing further was the better option.

So instead of owning his dream car, Modi founded Vedant Fashions in 2002. He had identified a gap in the market and decided to enter the manufacturing space, getting his own ethnic wear made in Uttar Pradesh. Modi made Vedant Fashions a market leader and ‘Manyawar’ a household name for bridal and wedding wear across the country. 

The brand’s popularity was propelled by endorsements by popular celebrities like Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Kartik Aaryan. From selling clothes for cash, Modi’s company grew to owning over 600 stores. Vedant, his son on whose name Ravi named his firm, is today its Chief Marketing Officer. His wife Shilpi is a board member.

Modi’s net worth today is over Rs 25,000 crore ($3.1 billion). However, he lives simply and resides in a housing society located in the suburbs of West Bengal capital Kolkata. Ravi is media-shy and did not even attend his company’s successful public listing. As for the dream car, Ravi Modi fulfilled his Mercedes wish 15 years later in 2017.