Raising Two Billionaires: Revathi Kamath on how family shaped Zerodha

Revathi Kamath, mor of entrepreneurs Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, recalled journey of two brors who started as trers and went on to be billionaire founders.

Against backdrop of Nikhil Kamath being rated India’s youngest billionaire by Forbes, his mor Revathi recounted stark difference in how two brors handle things emotionally, and bond of ir family shaping company to what it is today.

37-year-old emerged as youngest billionaire with a net worth of $3.1 billion according to Forbes Billionaires List 2024.    

“Nikhil Kamath cofounded discount brokerage Zerodha in 2010 with his older bror Nithin Kamath. It went on to disrupt brokerage market in India. Bengaluru-based Zerodha, has 10 million clients, making it one of largest brokerage firms in country," Forbes wrote about businessman.

family of four is based in Karnataka’s Udupi. Revathi recounted how brors started Kamath Associates in beginning with husband’s guidance.

“Nikhil worked for a 24x7 call centre at age of 17, during which he also started working with Indiabulls,” she said. 

She also spoke about how ir sons would never concentrate on ir studies, channelling ir ambitions to starting a business.

On brors’ bond, she said Nithin treats Nikhil as a son. She also spoke about how contrary to expectations, Nikhil is careful with his money.

Notably, Nikhil is also youngest Indian signatory of Giving Pledge, having committed to give away half his wealth in June 2023.

She spoke of emotional hardships family faced after her husband passed away in December last year. It was also posted how two brors did not take a long pause before resuming work.

boys used to take care of ir far, she said, ding that y h donated Rs 25 lakhs to a school in his native village on ir far’s birthday which brought tears to his eyes.

Recounting how two brors dealt with loss of ir far, she said while Nikhil knows how to control her emotions, Nithin is ‘tender at heart.’

In March, Nithin revealed he h a mild stroke. Revathi said he revealed about post six weeks after incident.

She said that Nithin was not active that day even at 11 am, which is unusual for him, and got alerted to take him to hospital.

“He was not in a position to see his phone, not responding but came down himself when heart attack happened,” she said.

Doctors h kept him in intensive care (ICU) for 48 hours and detected a clot size of a small mustard.

vising on podcast that excess of everything is b, she said too much of diet and exercise is also not good.

“I just want him to sing again,” she wished.

Zerodha was built after a lot of failures, she said and spoke about how Nikhil left home at 17.

As a mor, Revathi said she tried motivating m to study, giving m activities like making rangoli and teaching sal decoration.

family values kept family knitted toger through success and failure, she said, ding that family values played an important role in big businesses' growth.

Her husband was a banker who helped m set up Zerodha, and couple was also a key investor in company. Apart from teaching her financial management, he also taught brors about respecting money and not wasting resources.