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Rahul Chari Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

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Age: 45 Years
Wife: Priya Nair
Hometown: Mumbai

Rahul Chari

Bio/Wiki
Profession(s)• Serial Entrepreneur
• Engineer
Known forBeing the co-founder of PhonePe
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)in centimeters- 173 cm
in meters- 1.73 m
in feet & inches- 5’ 8”
Weight (approx.)in kilograms- 70 kg
in pounds- 154 lbs
Eye ColourBlack
Hair ColourBlack
Career
OrganizationPhonePe
DesignationChief Technology Officer
Tenure8 Years as of 2024
Award• 2015 - Outstanding Alumni by the Department of Computer Science of Purdue University
Personal Life
Date of Birth9 December 1978 (Saturday)
Age (as of 2023) 45 Years
BirthplaceHyderabad
Zodiac signSagittarius
NationalityIndian
HometownMumbai
School• St Xavier’s High School, Mumbai
• D. G. Ruparel College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai
College/University• Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai University (1999)
• Purdue University, U. S. (2001)
Educational Qualification(s)• BE in Computer Engineering
• Master’s of computer science
HobbiesCrafting wooden furniture, and Mixology
Relationships & More
Marital StatusMarried
Family
Wife/SpousePriya Nair
ParentsFather- Varada Chari (civil engineer and architect)
Mother- Padma (homemaker)
Favourites
SubjectsMathematics and Physics
GamesPC Games
Money Factor
Salary (approx.)Rs 10.1 crore as the VP of engineering at Flikart (2011) [1]Business Insider India

Rahul Chari

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rahul Chari

  • In an interview, Rahul Chari mentioned that his interest towards technology developed from his love for gaming on the Atari set station. He would often go to a computer education centre owned by one of his father’s friends to play PC games.
  • From the age of 4 to 9 years, Rahul Chari lived in Muscat, Oman with his father.
  • In class 11, he initially took biology as his main subject because Computer Science required a higher percentage but later switched to Electrical and Computer Science.
  • Rahul Chari was offered a seat in the civil engineering course at IIT-Bombay, but he refused the offer since he wanted to pursue computer engineering.
  • He got his first personal computer in 1995 after which he started learning coding.
  • In 1995, he pursued a computer engineering course at the Sardar Patel College, Mumbai University, which was also the first batch of computer engineering at the college.
  • In May 2000, Rahul Chari started working as a software intern at Sun Microsystems. While working at Sun Labs, he had the opportunity to interact with James Gosling, the father of Java.
  • After his post-graduation, Rahul Chari was offered jobs at various big tech companies such as IBM, Intel, etc. but he decided to join a startup. In an interview, he recalled the experience of starting his career at a startup rather than a well-established company, and said,

    This was just after the dot com bust had happened, and startups were considered extremely risky. Yet, I decided to join Andiamo.”

  • From June 2001 to February 2004, he worked as a software engineer at Andiamo Systems Inc.
  • In January 2003, Rahul Chari’s research paper titled ‘Minimizing Latency and Jitter for Large-Scale Multimedia Repositories Through Prefix Caching’ was published in the International Journal of Image and Graphics. [2]World Scientific
  • In February 2004, he joined Cisco Systems as a senior software engineer. Four years later, he was promoted to a managerial position.
  • In 2008, he moved back to India from the United States to be with his parents and start something of his own.
  • In December 2009, Rahul Chari co-founded MIME360 (Manoramic International Media Exchange), a media distribution platform, along with Sameer Nigam who is an alumnus of the Wharton School.
  • He then served as the Chief Technology Officer of MIME360 till October 2011.
  • Rahul met Sameer Nigam, co-founder of PhonePe, while pursuing his graduation.

    Rahul Chari (right) with Sameer Nigam

    Rahul Chari (right) with Sameer Nigam

  • In October 2011, Flipkart acqui-hired MIME360, and Rahul Chari was appointed the Vice President of their supply chain team.
  • In 2012, he headed the launch of FLYTE, a DRM-free Digital music store, which was a subsidiary platform of Flipkart.

    Rahul Chari (extreme right) as an employee at Flipkart

    Rahul Chari (extreme right) as an employee at Flipkart

  • In 2012, he launched Flipkart E-books on multiple platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows 8.
  • In December 2015, Rahul Chari co-founded PhonePe, a fintech company, and was appointed as the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

    Rahul Chari (extreme right) at an event organised by the PhonePe team

    Rahul Chari (extreme right) at an event organised by the PhonePe team

  • Rahul Chari, along with his wife, often gifts handcrafted jewellery boxes, floor lamps, and console tables to their friends and family, which are self-made by Rahul.

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