Meet Neeraj Chopra, man who sold Rs 50 crore worth of old phones; inspirational story of vegetable seller's son

The story of Neeraj Chopra is inspirational. His grandfather had migrated from Pakistan during Partition. His father was forced to sell vegetables when he was a child. Coming from a family who struggled to make ends meet, Chopra has done pretty well for himself. His late father wanted him to be a businessman. He founded a company named Zobox which has a very unique business model.

He runs the company that sells old, refurbished mobile phones. He explained his business model to Bhaskar. He said many people exchange their old phones on e-commerce websites. His company repairs and renews these phones. His firm later sells these phones in the market with warranty.

His firm targets people from Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities. They sell phones on bulk order. They also have a network of 5000 vendors.

The company's turnover this year is over Rs 50 crore. They have developed a technology that scans phones for any faults. They also find out the phone's remaining life.

His father, after selling vegetables, had started an export-import business. His father was working in Hong Kong. He also worked in Hong Kong.

He worked for 12 years in export. In 2012, his father came back to India. His uncle also passed away. He had to shut his business and come back to India.
He started his business in 2015. He first imported power banks. His cash flow completely stopped during demonetization. Then the coronavirus completely ended his enterprise.

He then started dealing in old smartphones. He first retailed old phones. After the business accrued losses, he started his business-to-business operations. This new business picked up.