Arun Pudur

Early life and education

Pudur was born in Chennai, but his family shifted to Bengaluru, as his father used to stay 7 to 8 months a year there. His father, Sri Ranga, was a cinematographer. Pudur is a graduate of the University of Bangalore, majoring in Business Management.

Career

Pudur started his career at age 13 by starting a business repairing scooters, funded by $150 borrowed from his mother. He sold that business for $200,000, and later bred dogs. Pudur says that he learned all the marketing skills, problem solving, customer handling, during his time at the garage.

Pudur made his first $1 million at age 21, and became a billionaire at 26. Pudur founded Celframe in 2001. Based in Malaysia, the privately held technology company reported revenue of $3.6 billion in 2010. Pudur told Billionaire.com in August 2015 that Celframe earned revenues of $6.8 billion the previous year. He says his original uptick in software sales was thanks to his 2005 change from a distributor to a partner model.

In 2015, global wealth intelligence and prospecting company Wealth-X ranked Pudur #10 on their list of the richest people under 40 in the world, with an estimated worth of $4 billion. The ranking makes Pudur the richest person under 40 in Asia. Celframe's software package has been cited as the world's second most popular after Microsoft Office. In addition to technology, Pudur has various businesses including real estate, gold, and mining. Pudur's charitable Pudur Foundation focuses on education, the environment, and equal rights. He said in 2015 that he intends to raise the foundation's assets from $400 million to $1 billion through internal and external fundraising.

In July 2016, Forbes Asia published an article stating that it had been unable to verify any of Pudur's claims about his company's earnings, customers, or business associates. Pudur was featured on the Bloomberg Television interview series High Flyers two days later, discussing his business and upcoming projects.