‘Business’ was not something that came naturally to Rakesh Malhotra. The son of a civil servant, he grew up in Delhi and Punjab, and studied at Delhi Cantonment’s Kendriya Vidyalaya for the most part. After securing an engineering degree in electronics and telecommunication from Jadavpur University in West Bengal, Malhotra joined the Tata Group’s Nelco in 1983. But by the time he was 26, he had developed a strong urge to become an entrepreneur. He pursued his entrepreneurial goals seriously and built a brand called Luminous that first came out with power back-ups for computers and then with invertors for homes in 1994. Now, it is also into other businesses like telecommunication infrastructure, knowledge process outsourcing and renewable energy. And in 2011, French electrical engineering and power management company Schneider Electric SA acquired 74 per cent stake in the company for around $310 million.
In an exclusive video show for VCCTV, Malhotra shares the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial journey from $800 (all the money that he had in savings and an engineering degree) to $310 million (the fortunes that he made by selling controlling stake in his enterprise). Malhotra has now established Ncubate Capital Partners to fund small and medium enterprises. Watch the video for more.
