Meet Bhadresh Shah, IIT alumnus who built Rs 26,000 crore company, lost all money he started biz with in one year

The story of billionaire businessman Bhadresh Shah starts out with the will to do something different. Shah is the man who created one of India’s world class industrial corporations. The IIT alumnus is the Managing Director of AIA Engineering, world’s second largest company in its segment. It has a market cap of Rs 26,086 crore, as of April 20, 2023.

Coming from a family of doctors, Shah chose to become an engineer as he wanted to do something different. He got through to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur but had to settle for metallurgical and material engineering as he could not land the more coveted streams of mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering, he once told Business Today. Graduating from IIT Kanpur in 1975, Shah again chose to take a different path. While most try to land a handsome job after graduating from the premium engineering institute, Shah decided to dive into business straight away.

However, Shah’s entrepreneurial journey started at the worst possible note. Starting out manufacturing pressure die castings in a small foundry in Gujarat, he lost the entirety of the Rs 1 lakh with which he started the business in the first year itself. "It was a difficult start. I was not sure about the direction. I lost all the money in the very first year," he was quoted as saying by Business Today.

Shah had taken a loan from the Central Bank of India and some money provided by his father. However, he had no choice but to continue and decided to do something different again, changing his product to power plant replacement components in 1977. Two years later, he began making iron castings and steel alloys for power plants in a new company he co-founded with a friend in 1979.

He expanded his business and then ventured into a new direction of European collaboration as he sought technological upgrades for his company. The tie-up with a Belgian company was initially successful but a further joint venture did not work out as expected and left Shah with a legal battle to reclaim his company. The businessman then set about on the next chapter. Shah bought back the stake from the European partner and renamed his company to AIA Engineering.

With “very little funds” he began to redevelop the international business which was managed by the former partner. With a UK acquisition and a London office, he established the international footprint again. Shah’s company today is the second largest hi-chrome casting manufacturer globally. From losing all his money in one year of starting the business, Shah is today worth over Rs 16,400 crore ($2 billion), as per Forbes' real-time rich list.