Dinesh Thakkar, founder of one of India’s largest retail stockbroking firms, Angel One Ltd., has acquired a luxury residential tower in Mumbai for more than ₹ 711 crores, making it the country’s most expensive known purchase of a single residential property, as per Bloomberg.
In an interview, Thakkar described his decision to leave his studies after Class 12 as one of the biggest risks he had taken, saying he believed he could build a business without a college degree. The turning point came when three investors backed his vision, investing ₹ 50 lakh each. Angel One was incorporated in 1996 and initially operated as a traditional stock brokerage. The digital transformation began in 2019 with the launch of an end-to-end digital investment platform.
Born in Mulund, Mumbai, into a family engaged in textile trading, Thakkar was exposed to business from an early age, according to Moneycontrol. He studied at St John the Baptist High School in Thane and later pursued science at Mumbai’s Kishinchand Chellaram College, according to Moneycontrol. That support helped provide the business with the capital it needed to continue and grow, eventually laying the foundation for what would become Angel One, said the report.
He chose not to continue with formal higher education. He reportedly initially joined his family’s textile business but soon found the constraints of the traditional setup frustrating. He eventually borrowed money from friends and entered the stock market as an investor. The early years were far from smooth. Instead of stepping away from the markets, he began studying the brokerage business and looking for gaps in the way traditional brokers served retail investors. Over the years, it evolved into a digital-first financial services company.
