8 Top Indian Entrepreneurs in the UK Disrupting the Business World
India has emerged as one of the biggest startup hubs around the world. A new startup is established every other day with an aim to make it to the top. Amongst the ocean of opportunities, Indian entrepreneurs in the UK strive to build an empire in niche marketplaces and give consumers a plethora of solutions for their needs.
From food delivery to e-commerce to digital payments, entrepreneurs today are paving the way to an advanced and futuristic world. Successful startups are built on persistence, disruptiveness, and a great understanding of the market requirements. Read on to know about the success stories of 8 Indian entrepreneurs in the UK!
How is Indian Entrepreneurship Booming in the UK?

India and the UK’s symbiotic bilateral relationship has helped exercise over half a million jobs in each other’s economies. They have similar strategic interests in IT, Data, AI, Healthcare, and Life Sciences in addition to driving innovation and financing the next generation of entrepreneurs and unicorns. 842 Indian companies and Indian entrepreneurs in the UK have raised almost €41 billion in revenue in 2020 and employed more than 110,000 people.
According to the report ‘India in the UK: The Diaspora Effect’, there are 654 Indian diaspora-owned companies that have an annual turnover of at least 1,00,000 pounds. Hospitality, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Retail & Wholesale, Real Estate & Construction, Food & Beverage are amongst the top five domains for the startup hub. A recent analysis by the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development showed India as the second biggest investor in the UK after the USA, as the UK taking the lead in the world as a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination.
Top Indian Entrepreneurs in the UK

1. Rishi Khosla

Rishi Khosla, Co-founder, and CEO of OakNorth, is a serial start-up entrepreneur in the UK. He is also an active venture capitalist and has provided early-stage funding to two multi-billion dollar companies – Indiabulls and PayPal.
Established in 2005, OakNorth is a next-generation credit platform that’s redefining the way banks lend to SME market businesses (“The Missing Middle”) globally. The platform also helps entrepreneurs with the capital to grow, create jobs and build communities, making a genuine impact in the UK. He also co-founded Copal Amba in 2002, a research and analytics outsourcing firm. The Rishi and Milan Khosla Foundation supports innovative ideas and projects around the world that have the potential to create a long-term impact on human lives and society.
2. Karan Bilimoria

Lord Karan Bilimoria is a British Indian entrepreneur in the UK. He founded Cobra Beer, and is the Chairman of Cobra Beer Partnership Ltd., alongside being the Chair of Molson Coors Cobra India as well. Lord Billimoria also happens to be an active crossbench member of the House of Lords. He also serves as the Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and President of the Confederation of British Industry.
The idea for the beer developed during Karan’s college days. He noticed that the regular lager was too gassy while ale was too bitter to accompany meals. He then created Cobra Beer in 1989, which is a blend of natural ingredients like traditional Indian barley malt, yeast, maize, rice, and hops. By 2001, Cobra Beer had a turnover of nearly €13 million. They also have Cobra Zero, an alcohol-free variant, and Cobra Gluten Free, a zero gluten drink.
3. Neha Manaktala

Neha Manaktala, Co-founder and CEO of DealIndex, is an entrepreneur and finance professional. She has experience of 8 years in investment banking, private equity, and start-ups at Actis Private Equity, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers. Manaktala co-founded Vizibee in 2012, which functions as an aggregated quality mobile video platform.
Based in London since 2014, DealIndex is an intelligent data and deal aggregator for the digital market. It focuses on premier analytics and research for efficient investor decisions on digital investments platforms. It allows its users to procure and navigate through real-time deals and data on the crowdfunding market. DealIndex is a part of Grow VC Group, a pioneer in crowdfunding, peer-to-peer and online investment markets.
4. Rajeeb Dey

Rajeeb Dey, a British Entrepreneur, is the Founder & CEO of Learnerbly, StudentVoice, Enternships.com, and is also the Co-founder of Startup Britain. At 17, he was the founder and chair of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA), a national student-run organization empowering secondary school students.
Learnerbly is a workplace learning platform that enables organizations to create a progressive learning culture. It supports people to apply their learnings at work. StudentVoice is an England-based student association for secondary students aged 11 to 19 years old to represent their interests in the national education policy. Enternships.com provides entrepreneurial work placements by connecting students and graduates to start-ups, SMEs, and Intrapreneurial firms worldwide. StartUp Britain is a campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs launched in 2011 by David Cameron to accelerate, inspire, and celebrate Britain’s start-up talent.
5. Tushar Agarwal

Tushar Agarwal is the Co-founder and CEO of HubbleHQ. This South Asian entrepreneur in the UK is an ex-banker and an economics graduate. He was a finalist for Amazon’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and winner of Property Week’s Innovator of the Year and Best Places to Work, 2 years in a row.
HubbleHQ makes hybrid working easy by helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to find the right balance between office and remote working so that their teams can thrive. The firm provides flexible office search with access to a network of on-demand workspaces.
6. Ranjit Singh Boparan

Known as the ‘Chicken King’ in the West Midlands in the UK, Ranjit Singh Boparan is an entrepreneur in the culinary world and founder of 2 Sisters Food Group along with his wife, Baljinder Kaur Boparan. This Indian entrepreneur in the UK has built a vast business employing 23,000 people.
Based in London since 2014, 2 Sisters Food Group was established in West Bromwich in 1993. It is a food manufacturing company which supplies major supermarkets and produces good quality & safe food at affordable prices. From chicken to curries, from pizzas to pies – they have it all. With an estimated revenue of £544m, the firm is UK’s second-largest food business by turnover.
7. Herman Narula

Herman Narula, an Indian entrepreneur in the UK, is the Co-founder and CEO of Improbable Worlds Ltd. He is interested in how technology can enable creativity and solve tough problems and is excited to create next-generation online games and virtual worlds.
Founded in 2012, Improbable is a multinational technology company that makes distributed simulation software for video games and corporate use. It breaks through the limits of contemporary online multiplayer gaming, building technology that would truly unlock the medium’s potential. It unites innovators with the technology to build rich and pioneering multiplayer worlds of the future.
8. Samir Desai

Samir Desai, an Indian entrepreneur in the UK, is the Co-founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Funding Circle. Prior to this, he was a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group and an Investment Executive at Olivant.
Funding Circle, established in 2010, functions as a machine learning technology platform that assists in providing loans to small businesses. Business owners can complete a loan application. They will consequently receive a decision in a matter of minutes and enable them to get funding quickly at an affordable rate. The organization has helped more than 118,000 small businesses across the world access the financing they need to grow.
FAQs
1. How many Indian companies are there in the UK?
According to a report by Grant Thornton, there are a total of 842 Indian companies operating in the UK, with combined revenue of over £48 billion. In addition, about 62 companies have achieved an annual growth rate of 10% or more this year.
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