Nikhil Kamath Age, Girlfriend, Wife, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Nickname	Nik [1]Nikhil Kamath's Official Website
Profession(s)	Entrepreneur, Trader, Investor
Known For	Being the co-founder of the Indian financial services company Zerodha
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	5' 9" (175 cm)
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	5 September 1986 (Friday)
Age (as of 2023)	37 Years
Birthplace	Shimoga, Karnataka
Zodiac sign	Virgo
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Shimoga, Karnataka
School	Oxford Senior Secondary School in JP Nagar, Bangalore [2]Rediff
Educational Qualification	High School drop out [3]Business Standard
Religion	Hinduism [4]Facebook
Caste	Gaud Saraswat Brahmin [5]Rediff
Food Habit	Non-Vegetarian [6]Rediff
Address	Kingfisher Towers, Bangalore
Hobbies	Painting, Playing Guitar
Controversy	On 13 June 2021, he faced allegations of cheating during an online chess game conducted by chess.com for COVID-19 relief. [7]The Hindu It was Viswanathan Anand’s simultaneous online chess games against celebrities including actor Aamir Khan, cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal, and singer Arijit Singh in which Kamath was the only one who defeated Anand. Later, after it was found that Kamath had used computer aid to defeat Anand, Kamath apologized through a post on Twitter where he wrote - I had help from the people analyzing the game, computers and the graciousness of Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience. This was for fun and charity. In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn’t realise all the confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies...”
Tattoo(s)	• A tattoo on the left wrist that reads 'Shalom' in English and Hebrew • A tattoo on the right arm that reads 'BE HERE NOW'
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Divorced
Marriage Date	18 April 2019 [8]Economic Times
Affairs/Girlfriends	• Manushi Chhillar (2021-2023) [9]Hindustan Times • Rhea Chakraborty (actor; rumoured) (2023)
Family
Wife/Spouse	Amanda Puravankara (ex-wife) (Director at Provident Housing Ltd, Bangalore)
Parents	Father- Raghuram Kamath (Retired from Canara Bank) Mother- Revathi Kamath (Environmentalist and Veena player)
Siblings	Brother- Nithin Kamath (Elder; Co-founder of Zerodha; image in aprents' section)
Favourites
City	Bengaluru
Style Quotient
Car Collection	• Audi A6 • Porsche Boxter S Convertible [10]Economic Times
Bike Collection
Watch Collection	• LeCoultre watch model • Octa Lune model by F.P. Journe • 1990 rose gold Rolex Day-Date model • Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex model from 1998 • 2015 Rolex Submariner • 2017 IWC Big Pilot watch • 2018 Blancpain Villeret dress watch • DBS model by the independent Swiss watchmaker De Bethune [11]The New York Times
Money Factor
Net Worth	$1.1 billion (as of 2023) [12]NDTV Note: Nikhil Kamath and Nithin Kamath officially joined the Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2023; he was ranked 2405 on the list with a net worth of $1.1 billion. [13]NDTV

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nikhil Kamath

• Does Nithin Kamath drink alcohol?: Yes
  

  Nikhil Kamath in a party

• Does Nithin Kamath smoke?: Yes ^[14]Rediff

• Nikhil Kamath is a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur known for co-founding Zerodha, an Indian institutional brokerage firm and trading platform.

• During his childhood, Nikhil had to travel a lot due to his father’s bank job. At the age of nine, he shifted to Bangalore and settled there with his family.
  

  Nikhil Kamath’s childhood picture with his father and brother

• According to him, he hated his time at school as he could never fathom the practicality of the education system. The only subject he was good at was maths.

• While he was in school, he used to participate in chess competitions at the state and national level. In an interview with CNBC, he said,

Chess teaches you how to work under a structure in a system, but yet try and be creative within that system.”

• Nikhil always had a business mind and was disinterested in his studies. His first business model was selling used phones, which he started at the age of 14. He had to shut that down due to his mother’s intervention. Reportedly, his mother threw his phones away as she felt he was too young for the business.

• His teachers at school were not happy with his performance and wanted to reprimand him by not letting him appear for his 10th board examinations. It was at that point, Nikhil decided that it was best for him to drop out and look for other options. In an interview, he said,
  

  I had no plan when I dropped out–the only plan was to make money. I come from a typical, middle class, Brahmin family– all my cousins are the MBA, PhD kind, so questions like, ‘What’s he going to do with his life?’ were asked.”

• After dropping out, Nikhil managed to get a job at a call centre at the age of 17 for a salary of meagre Rs 8000. Reportedly, he had to produce a fake birth certificate as the age requirement for that job was 18 years.

• He did night shifts at the call centre from 4 pm to 1 am and started stock trading in the morning. During this time, he moved out of his parents’ house and lived with his girlfriend. In an interview, sharing his experience of moving out, he said,

I learnt a lot; when you move away from the family ecosystem and the judgement of relatives, you get down to the real stuff.”

• After learning how to trade stocks, he started managing his father’s savings. Nikhil also convinced his manager at the call centre to let him manage his money. In return, the manager marked him present every day and even provided him with incentives.

• Kamath quit that job in 2004 to start a trading firm called Kamath Associates with his elder brother Nithin, who was also working as a part-time stockbroker.

• In 2010, Kamath brothers launched the trading platform Zerodha which is a combination of two words ‘Zero’ and ‘Rodha’ (Rodha is a Sanskrit word for barrier).

• Zerodha became India’s biggest trading platform during the COVID-19 lockdown, with its user base increasing by 100% every month. The biggest selling of Zerodha is that a nominal fee of Rs. 20 is charged for every intra day trade, irrespective of its size.

• As of 2021, Zerodha facilitates over 5 million orders (worth more than $1 billion) daily, which makes for about 15% of India’s daily equity volume.

• Nikhil and his brother founded the hedge fund Rainmatter in 2014 with a capital of INR 50 crores. The purpose of the hedge fund was to fund tech start-ups. They made a policy that every investment they make should be lower than 1 million dollars. Some of the investments that panned out well include Digio, Learnapp, Finception, Smallcase, Sensibull, and Quicko.

• In 2019, the team of Zerodha started another asset management company called True Beacon. The company focuses on investing in the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) space. The $2 million investment fund generated a 40% return in its first year by investing in volatile markets.

• Zerodha is also planning to start a mutual fund based AMC and has applied for its license in 2020.

• In a media interaction, while talking about his journey from a school dropout to a successful businessman, Nikhil said,

• In 2020, Nikhil became one of India’s youngest billionaire at the age of 34.

• Talking about his relationship with his brother, he said,

My brother and I have a great relationship, we’re more like friends. He is, however, as competitive as a 10-year-old boy, but in a nice way.”

• He has been featured on the cover page of various renowned business magazines.
  

  Nikhil Kamath featured on GQ magazine

• His interviews have been published in various business magazines and newspapers.
  

  Nikhil Kamath and his brother featured on the Forbes magazine

• Nikhil is an avid book lover and has more than 500 books in his collection.

• Kamath owns a pet dog named Hope. ^[15]Economic Times

• In an interview, he said that his idol was the Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

• In June 2023, he joined the Giving Pledge Foundation started by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in 2010 and pledged to donate most of his wealth to the foundation, becoming the fourth Indian leader to become a part of this community, following Azim Premji, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, and Rohini and Nandan Nilekani. ^[16]India Today While expressing his gratitude for joining the foundation, he said,
  

  As a young philanthropist, I am writing to express my gratitude whilst joining the Giving Pledge. Despite my age, I am committed to positively impacting the world and believe that the foundation’s mission of creating a more equitable society aligns with my values and aspirations.”

• In a podcast conversation in May 2024, he talked about parenthood and said that he would never like to have children as it takes a significant part of life to raise them.