UAE: 13-year-old kidpreneur wants to be world’s youngest billionaire

Thirteen-year-old Shaurrya Chaudhary wants to become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.

“I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur since I turned eight,” he said.

The world of financial management may seem too complicated for many adults, but to Shaurrya, it’s second nature. He has investments in stocks, gold, cryptocurrency and NTFS.

Now, this ‘kidpreneur’ is working to launch an Indian financial literacy platform for children in the UAE.

‘I am in World’ is a leading platform that enables parents to empower their children and make them financially smart, said the teen, who is a student of Dubai International Academy, Emirates Hills.

Shaurrya began cracking business deals for his father at the age of 11.

After Mahesh Chaudhary took over the management of his company Vision Concept Aviation Training Institute in 2017, he decided to bring his family to the UAE.

Shaurrya arrived in the country in April 2019 at the end of his academic year in India and registered for the new term in the UAE.

“I had about four months to myself. During that time, I worked for my father and he put me in his employment for a stipend of about Dh2,000 per month. I learnt a lot during that time and was even able to crack a few deals for my dad’s trading businesses,” Shaurrya said.

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He struck a deal with an edible cutlery manufacturer in India and exclusively sold the products to small restaurants in Dubai.

“I made approximately Dh30,000 during this time, thanks to commissions. I saved everything I made,” said Shaurrya. He invested his savings in gold and stocks and watched it grow until it doubled.

Business runs in the family, the father-son duo said. “We come from a Marwari family. Marwaris are an Indian ethnic group that originates from the Rajasthan region and are well-known to be traders and business people. A lot of our dinner conversations would revolve around business,” they said.

When the pandemic struck, the Chaudhary family had a house guest who was unable to leave Dubai for about four months.

“My dad’s mentor Dr Parimal Merchant, director of the Global Family Managed Business (GFMB) programme at SP Jain School of Global Management, stayed with us during that time,” Shaurrya said.

He made the most of the time he had with Merchant to gain a good understanding of finance and the stock market.

“He taught Shaurrya how to look at balance sheets, PE ratios, and introduced him to many concepts in finance and investments. This led to Shaurrya spending his next summer vacation looking for courses in finance. He realised he still had a long way to go to becoming financially literate,” said Mahesh.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com