Nikhil Kamath To Speak At NDTV World Summit: All About Zerodha Founder

The NDTV World Summit 2026 will be held in New Delhi on October 22 and 23. The two-day event will bring together world leaders, policymakers, business leaders and technology experts to discuss major global issues.

This year's theme, "A World Between Orders", will focus on how the world is changing and how countries are responding to new challenges.

Investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath will speak at the summit on the first day, October 22, at 1:10 pm. He will be speaking on "A Billion Possibilities: Building India's Next Economy".

Who is Nikhil Kamath?

Nikhil Kamath is an Indian entrepreneur and investor best known as the co-founder of Zerodha, one of India's largest stockbroking firms. Born on September 5, 1986, in Shimoga, Karnataka, Kamath grew up in Bengaluru. He comes from a Konkani-speaking Hindu family.

He dropped out of school after Class 10. When he was 14, he started buying and selling used mobile phones with his friend Tejpal. When his mother found out, she thought he was giving up on school for the business and flushed the phones down the toilet. 

At 17, he got a job at a call center, where he earned Rs 8,000 a month. He worked from 4 pm to 1 am and spent his mornings learning about stock trading.

In January 2004, he became a partner at Kamath Associates, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at the firm until July 2010. The brothers later decided to make stock trading more affordable for ordinary investors. In August 2010, they co-founded Zerodha.

Kamath co-founded True Beacon in 2019. The company manages investments for wealthy clients and focuses on Indian financial markets. In June 2021, he co-founded Gruhas with Abhijeet Pai. It is an India-focused venture capital and investment firm that focuses on climate tech, sustainability, property technology, artificial intelligence and more.

Nikhil Kamath's investment 

Kamath has also invested in several businesses, including Licious, Nourish You, Pee Safe, Subko, and Ather, an electric scooter maker. In 2025, he bought a 5 per cent stake in D'yavol Spirits, a company founded by actor Shah Rukh Khan and his son Aryan Khan.

Kamath is also involved in philanthropy and environmental work. He has also signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and has promised to donate at least 50 per cent of his wealth to charitable causes.

Nikhil Kamath's chess controversy

He started playing chess at the age of five. In June 2021, Kamath took part in an online charity chess event against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. The event was organised to raise money for Covid-19 relief. Kamath won the game, but it later emerged that he had used computer assistance. 

Nikhil Kamath's personal life

In March 2024, Nikhil Kamath started hosting a podcast called WTF Is. On the podcast, he talks to business leaders, entrepreneurs and well-known personalities about their work and experiences. His guests have included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, AR Rahman, Suniel Shetty and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Kamath married Amanda Puravankara in April 2019 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. She is the daughter of Ravi Puravankara, founder of real estate company Puravankara Limited. The couple separated within a year and divorced in 2021. He is currently rumoured to be dating actress Rhea Chakraborty.