Industrialist Srikanth Bolla to be judge on Shark Tank India | Who is the MIT alumnus?
Srikanth Bolla shared pictures from the set of Shark Tank India, including one with billionaire Gautam Adani's son Jeet.
Industrialist and the founder chairman of Bollant Industries, Srikanth Bolla, is set to feature as a ‘shark’ on popular show Shark Tank India, in which entrepreneurs from pitch their business models to a panel of investors and to get them to invest money in their idea.
In a preview of the upcoming episode, Srikanth Bolla was seen sitting alongside the judges.
Srikanth Bolla shared images from the show's set and wrote, “'To survive a pool of sharks, you need to become one yourself.' So yes, I got an opportunity to become a shark on Shark Tank India.”
In one of the pics, Bolla was seen standing with billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani's son Jeet Adani, who is currently serving as the Director of Adani Airports, Adani Petrochemicals, Adani Digital, Kutch Copper, Adani Defence & Aerospace.
“To be honest, entrepreneurship in India has taken a very heartwarming boost because of Shark Tank. People at the show seemed poised to solve some age-old problems and some modern issues in the society while being a visionary,” he said.
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“I will just say one thing to all my fellow citizens: Don't just think your idea, act on it, or someone else will! Thank you for having me, Shark Tank India - This is just the beginning!” he added.
In another social media post commending Shaadi.com Founder Anupam Mittal, Bolla said, “One of the privileges of being on Shark Tank is the invigorating presence of Anupam Mittal.”
“His appreciation of our efforts at Bollant means a lot to me personally as I found him as a man of profound knowledge in building businesses successfully. It is so easy to communicate with him as he understands,” he added.
Who is Srikanth Bolla?
Srikanth Bolla, the CEO, Co-founder and Chairman of Bollant Industries Private Limited, is a visually impaired entrepreneur and philanthropist who has features on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. He was the first international blind student ever admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, according to Bolla's website.
His company, Bollant, has clocked an annual turnover of over $150 million and currently employs over 500 people.
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Bolla walked miles to reach his school, which he enrolled in at the age of six, and went on to be amongst the top scorers of the state of Andhra Pradesh in the matriculation examinations. He went on to fight legal battles with the state government as he wanted to study with the Science stream after 10th but government rules did not allow blind students to enroll for the stream.
After scoring 98 per cent in class 12, Bolla was denied admission by multiple Indian engineering colleges, including IITs, which said that they were not capable enough to manage the studies of a visually-challenged person.
He applied to several international colleges, including Stanford, Berkeley and Cernegie Mellon, and finally chose to get enrolled at MIT.
He has also played at the national level in blind cricket, international chess and other sporting events like baseball and swimming.
During his time at MIT, he had also set up a computer training centre for visually-challenges students.
After completing his studies at MIT returning from the US in 2005, Bolla become a Youth Leader in the Lead India Program to combat poverty and unemployment. He trained over eight lakh youth in honing their leadership, human values and employability skills.
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He also designed and implemented a Braille library in Hyderabad using grants from MIT's Legatum Centre. He co-founded Samanvai Centre for Children with Multiple Disabilities in Hyderabad in 2011 and in 2012, he started Bollant Industries with a capital of just $19,000.
Since its incorporation in 2012, the company has been growing at a steady rate of 20 per cent per month and the compound annual growth rate has been a whopping 107 per cent from 2015 to 2019.
The role of Bolla in the entrepreneur's biopic ‘Srikanth’ was played by actor Rajkummar Rao.
