Man who borrowed $60 from a relative is now worth $5 billion

Hitesh Chimanlal Doshi started dabbling in India’s energy sector in 1985 using a 5,000-rupee ($60 – all values in USD) loan from a relative.

Almost 40 years later, Doshi leads the Waaree Group, one of the largest companies in renewable energy in India. With the listing of the group’s solar cell manufacturing arm Waaree Energies Ltd. on Monday in Mumbai, Doshi and his family have joined the ranks of the world’s richest people.

Waaree Energies shares surged 56% after its $514 million initial public offering, taking the Doshi family’s net worth to about $5.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, almost doubling the clan’s pre-listing wealth. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on Doshi’s fortune.

The 57 year old is the chairman and managing director of Waaree Energies, while two of his brothers and nephew are board directors in the group. The family’s also the largest shareholder of engineering arm Waaree Renewable Technologies Ltd. and energy storage company Waaree Technologies Ltd., both of which are already publicly listed.

Waaree Energies is the largest solar module manufacturer in India with a capacity of 12,000 megawatts. Most of its revenue comes from export sales to the US, which have increased significantly in the last few years due to tariffs on Chinese solar cells. Investor interest in India’s renewable-energy sector has been surging amid a world-beating rally in some stocks this year. The listing also underscores the latest wealth creation event in India’s IPO market, one of the world’s busiest this year.

The company will spend 28 billion rupees from the IPO proceeds to build a 6 gigawatt manufacturing plant in Odisha, a state on the east coast of India. It is also building a solar cell manufacturing unit in Chikhli, Gujarat and a solar module unit in the US.

“As India’s largest capacity holder, Waaree is set to expand further with announced capacity additions,” said Ninad Sarpotdar, an equity research analyst at Aditya Birla Capital. “By moving into cell and wafer manufacturing, Waaree gains a first-mover advantage and better control over costs,” he added.

Born in Tunki, Maharashtra, Doshi left his small village in the heart of the state and moved 600 kilometers (373 miles) to attend Shri Chinai College of Commerce and Economics at the University of Mumbai in 1985.

While there, he borrowed 5,000 rupees from a relative to start trading hardware, electronics and instrument gauges, the profits of which supported his living expenses and paid his college fees, he told the Economic Times in 2014.

After graduating, Doshi borrowed 150,000 rupees from a bank to set up a manufacturing company that made pressure gauges, gas station equipment and industrial valves. By the turn of millennium he saw the potential of trading in power equipment like water pumps, heaters, cookers and lanterns.

His biggest orders came from clients in the US and Europe. During a visit to a trade exhibition in Germany in 2007, he was “spell-bound” by the potential of solar energy, according to a 2021 report by local news provider YourStory. That inspired him to pivot and sell his thermal equipment business and focus on solar-cell manufacturing.

He named the company Waaree Energies after the Wari temple in his village.

In recent years, higher government spending on infrastructure and policy reforms at the federal and state-level have aided Doshi and other entrepreneurs in the renewable space.

Renewable energy accounts for almost half of total installed energy capacity in India and solar energy accounts for 20% of the 457 gigawatts of energy as of October 2024, according to a government report.

— With assistance from Anirban Nag.

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