How Sathya Shankar went from autorickshaw driver to a ₹900 crore tycoon in Karnataka

Sathya Shankar, now 60, heads a business group with a combined turnover of ₹900 crore after starting out as an autorickshaw driver in Bellare near Puttur in Karnataka in 1984. Forced to leave school after Class 12 as his father, a village priest, struggled to support the family, Shankar began working with a commercial driving licence and a loan secured under a government self-employment scheme.

Shankar first began driving an autorickshaw and cleared the vehicle loan within a year. He then upgraded to an Ambassador car and started a local taxi service. While driving foreign tourists across states, he noticed that their first purchase after stopping was often a sealed bottle of packaged drinking water. The pattern stayed with him, though he did not act on the idea immediately.

Move into business and finance

In 1987, he moved from driving to business, opening an automobile garage and spare parts shop and later adding a tyre dealership. There, he saw local farmers and drivers buying parts on credit and repaying the money in small but regular instalments. Seeing the lack of formal credit in rural areas, he launched Praveen Capital in 1994. The NBFC began by financing second-hand autorickshaws and commercial vehicles for working-class drivers.

Entry into beverages

Before that, in 2000, he had already launched Bindu Mineral Water under SG Corporates with an investment of ₹35 lakh. A key shift towards beverages came during a visit to North India in 2002. In local markets, Shankar saw the popularity of traditional flavours such as jaljeera and cumin-based drinks. He recognised that while multinational companies were strong in cola and orange soft drinks, Indian flavours had limited presence at a mass-manufactured scale.

In 2002, he followed it up with what became the company's flagship product, Bindu Fizz Jeera Masala, taking forward both his earlier observation about packaged water and his reading of the market for Indian flavours.

Growth of the Bindu brand

The jeera-based carbonated drink was slow to find acceptance at first, but the business grew steadily. By 2006, the company's turnover had reached ₹6 crore. By 2010, SG Corporates had crossed the ₹100 crore revenue mark, and Bindu Jeera had become widely known across South India. Rival multinational beverage companies later introduced their own jeera-flavoured drinks, while Bindu continued to hold a strong regional presence.

₹900 crore group turnover

Over the years, Shankar built businesses in transport, automobile retail, rural finance and beverages. His group now includes Megha Fruit Processing, which runs the Bindu brand along with mango juices, sodas and Snakup namkeens, and Praveen Capital, a non-banking financial company focused on rural borrowers in Karnataka and Kerala.

At present, Megha Fruit Processing contributes ₹570 crore to the group's turnover, while Praveen Capital brings in ₹330 crore through its branches in Karnataka and Kerala. The House of Bindu also exports its products to markets such as the UAE, Singapore and Malaysia. From leaving school in rural Karnataka to building businesses in finance and beverages, Shankar's journey has grown from a single autorickshaw loan into a ₹900 crore enterprise.