Harsh Jain Age, Wife, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Harsh Jain

Harsh Jain is an Indian businessman who is known for being the co-founder and Culture Enforcement Officer (CEO) of Dream11 (as of 2021), an Indian fantasy sports platform.

His father, Anand Jain, was ranked number 19 in the Forbes list of India’s 40 Richest Persons in 2007. His father is often referred to as the third son of Dhirubhai Ambani.

Harsh was inclined towards sports since childhood and was a part of his school’s football team.

During the final year of his graduation, Harsh worked as a summer intern at Microsoft for three months. There he handled the project- the feasibility and commercial benefits for Microsoft to enter the Push-To-Talk (PTT) marketplace.

In 2007, he joined his father’s firm Jai Corp. Limited, Mumbai, as a Marketing Manager.

Bringing together his passion for gaming, sports, and technology, Harsh, along with Bhavit Sheth, founded an Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11 in 2008.
Harsh Jain with Bhavit Sheth at Dream11’s office

He then established Red Digital, a social media agency, in 2010. Many big Indian and international companies like Dell, Adidas, PVR, Berger Paints, EduComp, and Reliance Foundation became the clients of Red Digital within two years of its incorporation.

Harsh was appointed as the President of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports in 2017.

As of 2021, Jain’s Dream11 has around 70 million registered users and 10 million paid users.

In his spare time, Jain likes to travel and play football. He also enjoys spending time with his pet dogs at his Lonavala house.

Amid the anti-China sentiment in India due to COVID-19, Harsh announced that Dream11 would not raise funds from Chinese investors in the future. Apparently, in March 2021, 10% of the shares of Jain’s Dream11 were owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese multinational. ^[5]The Economic Times

In an interview, when Harsh was asked about the idea behind starting a fantasy sports website, he said,

I have been an avid fantasy football (EPL) fan since 2001 and when the IPL began in 2008, I went looking to play fantasy cricket online. It was shocking to see that in a country like India, where cricket is watched by 800 million people, fantasy cricket was non-existent. So my co-founder Bhavit and I thought this was a perfect problem for us to solve. After a few years of experimenting with different formats on Dream11, we found a market-fit product with single-match freemium fantasy cricket in 2012. Over the years, Dream11 has grown to become a diverse platform by offering multiple sports to a variety of sports fans in the country and has grown from 3 lakh users in 2015 to 3.8 crore users in 2018.”

Jain’s Dream11 is reportedly the first Indian gaming company to become a unicorn; a unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.

In August 2020, Dream11 got the title sponsorship rights of the Indian Premier League for Rs. 2.2 billion after Vivo exited the space. ^[6]The Times of India

Since childhood, Harsh had a soft corner for dogs. He often used to feed stray animals near his building when he was a child. When he was in his teens, he once brought a stray cat home in order to adopt her as a pet. However, he failed to do so.

His first pet was a beagle named Simba that was gifted to him by his parents. Simba died at the age of 5 due to some serious health issues. As of 2021, he owns four pet dogs- two beagles and two alsatians.

In 2020, Harsh and his wife Rachana founded Raksha Foundation, an NGO in Mumbai. The foundation is focused on providing free education to underprivileged children and promoting animal welfare.

In November 2021, Harsh’s wife, Rachana, bought a luxury duplex in 33 South, Peddar Road, South Mumbai, for Rs. 72 crores. ^[7]The Economic Times