Premji family
Wipro's predecessor, Western India Vegetable Products, was founded by Azim Premji's father in Amalner, Maharashtra, in 1945, producing vegetable oil and soap. Azim Premji took over the family business in 1966 at age 21, after his father's sudden death, leaving his studies at Stanford to do so.
How the fortune was built
Under Premji's roughly five-decade stewardship, the company diversified into soaps and light bulbs before pivoting decisively into information technology in the 1980s–90s, eventually becoming one of India's largest IT-services exporters as Wipro Limited. Premji stepped down as executive chairman in 2019, handing the role to son Rishad Premji, with a non-family CEO running day-to-day operations.
Where the family invests today
The family's investment arm, Premji Invest, founded in 2006 and based in Bengaluru, is one of India's largest family offices, reportedly managing upward of $15 billion across consumer, healthcare, technology, and financial-services investments in India and the US. Separately — and arguably more consequential — Azim Premji has donated Wipro shares cumulatively estimated in the tens of billions of dollars to the Azim Premji Foundation, which now holds roughly two-thirds of Wipro's economic ownership and funds education and health programs reaching millions of children.
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