The Agarwals

Mythologically, the Agarwals trace their origin to Agroha, a small town in Haryana,in North India and regard King Agrasena as their progenitor. A Bania subcaste, the Agarwals are made up of 18 clans, among them the Gargs, Goyals, Bansals, Mittals, Singhals and Jindals. As traders and entrepreneurs,in India, the Agarwal community,like the Chettiars of Tamil Nadu and the Moplahs of Kerala, have no mean reputation  — the community is prosperous and has proven its mercantile mettle over the centuries. Businessmen from Agarwal clans are among the wealthiest in India and include the Bharti Group’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vedanta Resources’ Anil Aggarwal, Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways and ArcelorMittal’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer LN Mittal.

In traditional business families from such communities, members are used to having strategy for breakfast, accounts for lunch and operations for dinner from an early age.  Even so, the extent of domination by the Agarwal community in the virtual world is astonishing.Even among trading communities, the Agarwals have proven to be especially prolific at launching e-commerce ventures.Even those with a distinguished academic record end up starting their own ventures.The who’s who of e-commerce entrepreneurs is drawn mostly from the ranks of the Agarwals. Companies run by young Agarwal businessmen, among them Flipkart, Snapdeal, Yebhi, and Myntra, account for the majority of sales by Indian e-commerce companies. And last year, for every $100 in funding for e-commerce companies, $40 went to firms founded by an Agarwal.  Read more of this post