From studying under a tree to starting Zscaler: Jay Chaudhry's rise to Rs 90,948 crore net worth

Jay Chaudhry, an Indian-American billionaire and the founder and CEO of the prestigious cloud security firm Zscaler, stands as a shining example of defying odds and achieving tremendous success through sheer grit and determination. His journey serves as a testament to perseverance and serves as an inspiration to all.

Meet Jay Chaudry, the CEO and founder of cybersecurity company Zscaler

Jay Chaudhry, the CEO of Zscaler, founded the cybersecurity company in 2008, which went public in March 2018. Before Zscaler, Chaudhry established four tech companies ¡ª SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust, and AirDefense ¡ª all of which were successfully acquired. Originally from a small Himalayan village, he moved to the US in 1980 to pursue graduate studies.

Jay Chaudhry's remarkable achievements have placed him on the esteemed Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest individuals in America.

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Additionally, he earned recognition as the wealthiest NRI (Non-Resident Indian) residing in the US, with a fortune of Rs 72,100 crore according to the Hurun Rich List 2023.

Jay Chaudhary¡¯s early life

Jay Chaudhry was born in Panoh, a village in the Una district of Himachal Pradesh, India, which had a population of 800. The village did not have running water or electricity until he was a teenager. His parents, Bhagat and Surjeet Chaudhry, were small-scale farmers, and he was the youngest of three sons.

In an interview, Jay recalled walking nearly 4 kilometers every day to attend high school in the neighboring village of Dhusara. Due to the lack of electricity, he often studied outdoors under a tree.

After achieving top honors in the pre-university exams at the state level, he pursued his BTech degree at the former Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (now IIT-BHU), and with support from the Tata Group, pursued a master¡¯s degree at the University of Cincinnati in the US.

Chaudhry got a Tata scholarship which became a turning point in his education

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According to Hindu Business Line, Chaudhry was one of 30 students awarded the Tata scholarship that year. JRD Tata, who was in his late 70s at the time, personally interviewed all the final candidates. The interview lasted four minutes and consisted of three questions about Chaudhry's background. Tata then wished him good luck. Chaudhry explained that the Tata scholarship aimed to support students who could succeed and repay the loan, which would then be made available to another deserving student.

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Jay Chaudhary¡¯s Career

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Chaudhry began his career by working in engineering, sales, marketing, and management roles at IBM, Unisys, and NCR. Subsequently, he ventured into entrepreneurship by establishing five security software startups. In 1996, he and his wife utilized their life savings to found the Internet security service SecureIT. After SecureIT was acquired by Verisign in 1998, Chaudhry relocated to San Francisco to lead Verisign¡¯s security services division, departing from the company in 1999.

In 2007, Chaudhry founded Zscaler, a Zero Trust cloud security company, with the vision of creating the "Salesforce of cloud security," inspired by Marc Benioff. Zscaler has achieved significant growth, recording revenue of USD 525.0 million in the Second Quarter of Fiscal 2024.

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Jay Chaudhary¡¯s Net Worth

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As per Bloomberg Index, Jay Chaudhary has an estimated net worth of USD 10.9 billion (Rs 90,948 crore approx) currently.