Balakrishna might not be the face of Patanjali — that honour is reserved for Yoga-guru Baba Ramdev — but he does own about 98.5% stake in the Ayurvedic giant turned FMCG. Since its inception, it has been taking on big companies like Walmart and Amazon in India.
The 47-year old Balakrishna, who’s worth $1.6 billion according to Forbes, started his journey way back in 1995 when he set up Divya Pharmacy along with his friend and Ramdev — who is known to have strong connections with the right-wing political party in India.
A decade later, Balakrishna launched Patanjali Ayurved — by taking a personal loan of up to ₹60 crore (around $793,020).
Now, Patanjali — which has set its sights on becoming a ₹ 40,000 crore FMCG (around $5 billion) — is involved in almost every business from food to clothing to power to private security, and even cloud services and IT solutions.
While Balakrishna gets all the credit to build a multi-billion dollar empire, he’s also been a part of several controversies. Recently, many Twitter users trolled him for claiming to have discovered the cure for coronavirus.
Previously, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a case of forgery and cheating against Balakrishna in 2016 — which both Balakrishna and Ramdev denied. CBI claimed the degree which Balakrishna got from Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya in Varanasi was fake.
In 2017, Acharya Balakrishna entered the billionaire club in India — becoming the eighth richest person in the country. He is one of few personalities to rise from rags to riches without any formal education rather and, instead, being well versed with the Vedas — an ancient Indian religious text.
Balakrishna, who hails from Nepal, is reportedly famous for the way he conducts his meetings — taking no more than 5 minutes to make a decision.
Despite all the effort, Balakrishna has lost over 80% of his wealth in the last few years. Patanjali — whose revenues have also declined in the last two years — is trying to regain market share to become the largest FMCG in the country. And, India’s latest anti-China sentiments may also help it along to hopefully return Balakrishna to his former glory.
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