Neetish Sarda Recognised in India's Top 10 Youngest Founders
India’s startup landscape is being reshaped by a new generation of founders who are young, decisive, and increasingly willing to take on sectors that were once considered slow or resistant to change. Among them is Neetish Sarda, the founder of Smartworks, who has been recognised as one of India’s top 10 youngest entrepreneurs, a distinction that speaks as much to what he has built as to when he chose to build it.
The recognition comes from the third edition of the IDFC FIRST Private Bank–Hurun India list of the country’s Top Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025. The list is largely populated by consumer internet and fintech founders, reflecting where much of India’s digital momentum has played out. Names like Zepto co-founders Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, or BharatPe’s Shashvat Nakrani, represent businesses built on speed, scale, and rapid adoption.
Sarda’s journey sits apart.
While many of his peers built in software-driven categories, Sarda chose commercial real estate, a sector known for complexity, long cycles, and operational precision. At an age when many founders are still testing ideas, he built Smartworks into India’s largest managed workspace platform, focused squarely on enterprises and global capability centres rather than individual users or small teams.
The insight was simple, but difficult to execute. Enterprises wanted flexibility, but not at the cost of control, compliance, or scale. Traditional office leasing was capital-heavy and slow. Early coworking models were not designed for large organisations. There was a gap between ownership and agility, and Smartworks was built to occupy that space.
Instead of chasing desk-level demand, Neetish Sarda designed Smartworks around large, campus-style offices that could be delivered quickly, managed end to end, and replicated across cities. It was a long-term bet in a sector that does not reward haste. Real estate favours patience, consistency, and execution. Over time, that discipline became a competitive advantage as companies began rethinking ownership, capex, and multi-city expansion.
Under Neetish Sarda’s leadership, Smartworks marked a significant milestone by debuting on India’s stock exchanges in July 2025. The listing reflected years of disciplined expansion, a clear focus on enterprise-led demand, and a business model built for durability rather than quick wins. For a sector often viewed as fragmented or cyclical, Smartworks’ public market entry signalled growing confidence in managed offices as a long-term, institutional asset class, and positioned the company for its next phase of scale under Sarda’s stewardship.
The list also includes founders such as Ankush Sachdeva of ShareChat and Rajan Bajaj of Slice, each building for distinct shifts in consumer behaviour and financial access. Together, they reflect how broad India’s startup opportunity set has become, extending well beyond apps and platforms into sectors once considered difficult to modernise.