Around 254 individuals were dropped from the Forbes Billionaire 2023 list released, April 4, 2023, including Indian American Niraj Shah, the CEO and co-founder of furniture brand, Wayfair. He has a current net worth of US$600 million, a fall from US$1.6 billion in the recent past.
Media reports attributed the billionaire's fall to the declining furniture demand from Wayfair which sells furniture and home goods online. This comes after the co-founder, along with chairman Steve Conine, announced the layoff of 1,700 employees as part of the company's cost-savings plan. Wayfair was established by Shah and Conine in 2002 after the former's venture at Simplfy Mobile, an enterprise software company, which was sold in 2001. The firm that grew over the last two decades, operates throughout North America and Europe.
The son of Indian immigrants, Shah was brought up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Cornell University in 1995. He was featured in the Fortune list of "40 under 40" in 2013 and served as the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 2017. He then co-founded Shah Family Foundation along with his wife Jill in 2017 to offer education and healthcare programs.
Meanwhile, India business tycoon Mukesh Ambani regained his top spot as Asia's richest, and ranking ninth among the top ten billionaires in the world with a net worth of US$83.4 billion. Gautam Adani has tumbled to number 24. The Indian newcomers who made it to the list include Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha and his brother Nithin Kamath from Bengaluru, with a net worth of US$1.1 billion and US$ 2.7 billion, respectively. Nevertheless, the Forbes Billionaires report said, "Two-thirds of the top 25 are poorer than they were last year, compared to around half of the list overall."
