Azhar Iqubal (Inshorts Co-owner) Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Azhar Iqubal is an Indian entrepreneur and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of news delivery application Inshorts. He made headlines in October 2023 after he was selected as a judge (often referred to as “the Shark”) on the business reality TV series Shark Tank India.

Wiki/Biography

Azhar Iqubal was born in 1993 in Kishanganj, Bihar, India (age 30 in 2023). After completing his studies, he started preparing for IIT JEE. He joined IIT Delhi in 2009. There he studied computer science engineering. However, he dropped out of the Indian Institute of Technology in 2012 to become an entrepreneur.

appearance

Height (approximately): 5′10″

Hair color: black

Eye color: dark brown

family

Azhar Iqubal was born into a Muslim family in Bihar.

Parents and siblings

There is not much information about his parents and siblings.

wife and children

He is unmarried and has no children.

Profession

Climb successfully

Start with a Facebook page

While studying in college, Azhar created a Facebook page called News In Shorts along with two classmates, Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Pandey. According to him, he decided to start posting news on Facebook because many of his classmates did not know what was happening in the country and the world. Another reason he cited was that articles published by traditional news sites and apps were too lengthy and time-consuming. He discussed this issue in an interview and said:

I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2013 with my classmates Anunay Pandey and Deepit Purkayastha from IIT. We have observed that Millennials are increasingly moving away from the concept of reading news, with the main obstacles being long and bulky content and a lack of reading time. Recognizing this problem, we decided to create a Facebook page called News in Shorts, which focuses on providing readers with quick summaries of news stories within the confines of 60 words. Today, Inshorts is India’s most-watched and No. 1 English-language news app with over 10 million active users. “

On his Facebook page, Azar used to post short, trending news that people could read within a minute. After setting up a Facebook page, he asked his friends and family to share the page among their Moments, and soon the page gained many followers.

Photo taken when Azar was at IIT Delhi

Attend TLabs

While studying at IIT Delhi, Azhar Iqubal, Deepit and Anunay were shortlisted to participate in several entrepreneurship workshops and events organized by Times Internet Group’s TLabs. There, they interacted with many people and renowned entrepreneurs and successfully raised Rs. 10 Lakhs encash 10% equity to support their business idea. In an interview, Azhar revealed that he got the motivation to become an entrepreneur when he saw companies like Snapdeal and Flipkart raising funds to expand their user base in India. He also said that the economic policies implemented by the Indian government in 2009 have created a favorable market for budding entrepreneurs.

Azhar’s photo with other co-founders of Inshorts

Become a successful entrepreneur

underwear

In 2012, Azhar Iqubal decided to quit IIT Delhi to focus on growing his business. On September 4, 2013, the trio launched News In Shorts, a mobile app that delivers news on trending topics to users in just 60 words and takes less than 30 seconds for free read. The application is released for Android users. As his business grew, he hired a team of professional writers. He also started monetizing his app with the help of ads. Azhar said in an interview that he never followed the traditional shift system and worked more than 12 hours a day. In 2014, Azhar and two of his friends successfully raised a decent Series C round in New Delhi. In 2015, the app was renamed Inshorts and received an investment of over Rs. 250 million rupees. The app was launched for iOS users in the same year.

Initially 80 to 100 news articles were published daily, but this number increased significantly to more than 500 articles. In April 2016, Azhar launched a Hindi version of Inshorts to expand the app’s reach in tier-II cities. He was appointed as Director of Inshorts India Advertising And Services Private Limited on January 10, 2020. In 2021, Inshorts successfully received $60 million worth of investment. As of October 2023, Inshorts has raised over $119 million from 8 investors across 6 rounds of funding. As of 2023, the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times, making it one of the most downloaded and used apps in India. Its value is Rs. It will be approximately Rs 3,700 crore in October 2023.

Photos taken by Azhar in the office

Other business

On November 16, 2019, he became a Director of Locvid Services Private Limited, a company that provides related services such as accounting, bookkeeping, auditing activities, tax consultancy, market research and opinion polling, and business and management consultancy. In the same year, Azhar launched a social media app called Public along with Deepit and Anunay. The app aims to connect local communities in India with each other.

Logo for public applications

In 2021, the platform received an investment of Rs. 3 billion rupees. In October 2023, the app was downloaded more than 100 million times, making it the largest location-based social networking platform in India.