Meet Azhar Iqubal, the co-founder of Inshorts, a popular app that delivers news in 60 words or less. Azhar was born in 1993 in a small town in Bihar, India, but he had big dreams of changing the world with his ideas. He is a passionate entrepreneur who loves to innovate, work hard, and create value for his users. In this article, you’ll learn more about his inspiring story and how he built one of the most successful digital news platforms in India.
Meet Azhar Iqubal, the co-founder of Inshorts, an app that gives you the latest news in 60 words or less. Azhar was born in 1993 in a small town called Kishanganj in Bihar, India. He always loved learning new things and wanted to change the world for the better. That’s why he created Inshorts, a platform that makes news easy and fun to read for millions of people.
Azhar Iqubal Biography
| Full Name | Azhar Iqubal |
| Nickname | Azhar |
| Known For | Co-founder of Inshorts |
| Gender | Male |
| Profession | Entrepreneur |
| Date of Birth | 1993 |
| Age | 30 years |
| Birthplace | Kishanganj, Bihar, India |
| Hometown | New Delhi, India |
| Religion | Islam |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Net worth | 500 crore |
Azhar Iqubal Physical Status
| Height | 5 Feet 10 Inches |
| Weight | 70 kg |
| Eye Colour | Dark Brown |
| Hair Colour | Black |
Azhar Iqubal Favourite Things & Hobby
| Favourite Film | Chak De! India (2007) |
| Favourite Food | Dal Chawal |
| Favourite Quote | “Life is not fair, get used to it” by Bill Gates |
| Favourite Hobbies | Reading, Travelling. Skydiving |
Azhar Iqubal Education
| College/University | Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi |
| Qualification | BTech (Computer Science) dropout in 2012. |
Azhar Iqubal Net worth 2023
Azhar Iqubal is a well-known entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Inshorts, a popular news aggregation application. He started Inshorts as a Facebook page in partnership with Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Arunav, and they launched the application in 2013. The application was a success and was launched for Apple iPhones in 2015. In 2021, Inshorts raised a round at a reported valuation of 550 million dollars.
| Net worth | $ 67 million (Rs 500 crore) |
Azhar Iqubal Early Life
Azhar Iqubal was born in Kishanganj, Bihar, India. He belongs to a Muslim family. From childhood, he has curiosity and a passion for information. He completed his schooling at a private school, after schooling, he began to preparing for the IIT JEE. In 2009, he cracked IIT JEE and take admission into IIT, Delhi in BTECH (Computer Science). During his college years, he noticed that people are avoiding news articles because they are lengthy and boring. So he came up with the idea of bringing news in 3 to 4 lines.
Azhar Iqubal Career
Early Career
Azhar and his classmates Deepti Purkayastha and Anunay Pandey created the Facebook page “News InShorts”. He regularly shared short and trending news on the Facebook page, news in shorts, created for quick one-minute reads. During his course at IIT Delhi, He and his friends were shortlisted to attend several entrepreneurial seminars and events conducted by the Times internet group’s TLabs. He and his business partners managed to raise Rs 10 Lakh against 10 % equity for their business idea.
Success
Azhar Iqbal decided to leave IIT Delhi to focus on Business development in 2012. On 4 September 2013, Azhar, Deepti and Anunay launched the mobile application news In Shorts in which users can read news on trending topics in just 60 words which took less than 30 seconds and it is free of cost. Initially, this app was made available only for Android users. In 2014, Azhar and his two friends managed to raise good investment funding in the C-round funding in New Delhi. The application name was changed to In Shorts and received investment for more than 25 crore rupees in 2015. Same year, they also made the application available for iPhone users. In 2016, He introduced a Hindi version of In Shorts to increase the reach of the application in tier-two cities.
Another Launch
On 16 November 2019, Azhar was appointed as the director of Locvid Services Private Limited. Same year, Azhar together with Deepti and Anunay, launched the social media app “Public” to connect local communities in India. Azhar appointed as the director of InShorts India Advertising and Services Private Limited on 10 January 2020. In 2021, InShorts secured $60 million in investment, along with that, Public App secured Rs.300 crores. In October 2023, the Public App had more than 100 million downloads as well as InShorts was downloaded more than 10 million times on Goggle Play Store which has estimated value of Rs 3700 crore.
Azhar Iqubal Awards & Honours
- 2016-Fortune India 40 under 40.
- 2018-Forbes India 30 under 30.
- 2018-Forbes 30 under 30.
- 2018-Forbes Asia 30 under 30.
- 2022- Entrepreneur of the year (Media) by the Entrepreneur India Magazine.
- Leaders of Asia Award.
- Business World Young Entrepreneur Award.
Azhar Iqubal Shark Tank Judge
In the latest updates related to the Shark Tank India, a business reality show, it has been announced that Azhar Iqubal will be one of the newly added sharks for the third season of Shark Tank India. He will be judging and making business deals with the best contestants. He will work as a Shark along with seasoned sharks Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar and others. He has also shared his excitement and encouraged the youth of India that he will be supporting young entrepreneurs no matter whether they have a degree or not.
Some Interesting Fact’s
- He starts reading when he launched InShorts in 2023.
- He loves travelling, he travelled many places.
- Azhar is fond of adventure sports like sky diving and scuba diving.
- In 2023, He joined Shark Tank India as a Judge.
- In 2015, The Times of India published an article on him.
Azhar Iqubal Facts
- Azhar wanted his friends to know more about what’s happening in the world, so he made a Facebook page called “News In Shorts” when he was in college.
- Inshorts started as a 60-word news summary platform, but now it’s a top English news app with more than 10 million people using it.
- Azhar and his buddies got Rs. 10 lakh to start their business after pitching their idea at IIT Delhi events.
- The Public App, another cool thing by Azhar, was the most popular location-based social media app with over 100 million downloads in October 2023.
- Inshorts got $60 million from investors in 2021, showing how big and awesome the company has become under Azhar’s leadership.
- Azhar left IIT Delhi in 2012 to focus on his business. He was inspired by Sachin Bansal, the founder of Flipkart, who also quit IIT.
- Azhar’s family had a tough time when he quit engineering. No one supported his choice and thought he was making a mistake.
- Azhar, Deepit, and Anunay launched the News In Shorts app on 4 September 2013. It gave you free, 60-word news summaries on hot topics that you could read in less than 30 seconds. The app was only for Android users at first.
- As the company grew, Azhar hired more writers and made money from ads on the app. He said in an interview that he worked for more than 12 hours a day.
- In 2014, News In Shorts got a lot of money from investors in a C-round funding event in New Delhi.
- In 2015, the app changed its name to Inshorts and got more than 25 crore rupees from investors.
- In the same year, the app was also available for iPhone users.
- He was in an article by The Times of India in 2015.
- In the beginning, they published 80 to 100 news articles a day, but later they increased it to over 500.
- In April 2016, Azhar added a Hindi version of Inshorts to reach more people in smaller cities.
- He became the director of Locvid Services Private Limited on 16 November 2019. The company offers services like accounting, bookkeeping, auditing, tax consultancy, market research, public opinion polling, and business management consultancy.
- He was a judge on Shark Tank India in 2023.
Azhar Iqubal Wife
Meet the new and youngest judge of Shark Tank New Season Azhar Iqubal who joins Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal and Oyo CEO Ritesh Agarwal. Now all the fans who love to watch Shark Tank, searching for Azhar Iqubal Wife, Is Azhar Iqubal Married? Girlfriend and more information. He is 31 Years old and studied at IIT Delhi between 2009 and 2012. In 2021, he raised a round at a valuation of 550 million dollars.
Azhar Iqubal seems to be unmarried. However, there is no official statement of being married of him but he has not appeared with any woman whom he has represented as his wife.
Azhar Iqubal Business
Azhar Iqubal started her entrepreneurial journey in 2013 with his IIT classmates and they observed that Millennials were increasingly distancing themselves from the concept of reading news.
Then they decided to create a Facebook Page “In Shorts” giving the readers quick summaries of news stories within the limit of 60 words. Their Inshorts app has become India’s highest-rated and #1 English news app with more than 10 million active users.
The fonded Public App in 2019 to connect local communities of India through an India platform. Public App has become India’s largest location-based social network with more than 50 million active users.
Inshorts App has raised a total of $64 million till now securing $35 million in funding from Addition, SIG Global, and Tanglin Venture Partners in September 2020 to bolster their expansion plans in India.
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