About
Azhar Iqubal is the spirited entrepreneur behind Inshorts, the Indian news app famous for squeezing every story into 60 words. Launched in 2013, the platform has grown to more than 10 million active users and attracted about $125 million in funding, thanks to Azhar’s mix of product obsession and plain‑spoken leadership.
In 2019 he spun out Public, a video‑first social network that lets neighbours share local updates—from traffic jams to lost pets—in their own language. By early 2025 Public carried a valuation of roughly $250 million and had become India’s largest hyper‑local news community.
Mainstream fame arrived in 2024 when Sony Television added Azhar to the investor line‑up for Shark Tank India Season 3. At 32 he was the show’s youngest “shark,” praised for quick due‑diligence and unvarnished advice.
True to form, he rolled out a fresh venture in April 2025—Fenado, a no‑code AI platform that helps small businesses build full apps and websites with simple drag‑and‑drop prompts. The launch underscored his habit of solving everyday problems with stripped‑down tech.
Before Fame
Born on 18 January 1992 in Kishanganj, Bihar, Azhar grew up in a modest household that prized education and self‑reliance. He cleared the tough IIT‑JEE on his first try and joined IIT Delhi in 2009 to study computer science, only to discover that pitch decks excited him more than problem sets.
During college he teamed up with classmates Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Pandey to create News In Shorts, a Facebook page that re‑wrote headlines in 60 words so friends could keep up with current affairs between lectures. The concept took off in weeks, prompting the trio to seek seed money.
A ₹10‑lakh cheque from Times Internet’s TLabs accelerator sealed the deal: Azhar dropped out in his third year, shipped an Android app in September 2013, followed with an iOS version in 2015, and rebranded the service as Inshorts—laying the foundation for a new way of consuming news on the go.
Trivia
- Rule of 60: Every Inshorts story must fit inside 60 words; Azhar still edits random articles himself to keep writers honest.
- Youngest shark: He joined Shark Tank India at 32—about a decade younger than most co‑investors on the panel.
- Award shelf: His accolades include Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2018), Fortune India 40 Under 40 (2016) and Entrepreneur India’s Entrepreneur of the Year – Media (2022).
- Public’s big milestone: The Public app crossed 100 million downloads in October 2023, making it India’s most‑installed local news platform.
- Car enthusiast: Away from dashboards of the digital kind, he loves road‑tripping in a Porsche 718 Boxster—one of several vehicles in his growing garage.
Family Life
Azhar guards his personal life closely. Public records and interviews show he is unmarried, splits his time between Inshorts’ Noida headquarters and a home in Gurugram, and still flies back to Kishanganj for family gatherings. He often says his parents backed his decision to leave IIT even when relatives urged caution—his mother still jokes that he should “finish that degree” someday.
Associated With
Azhar’s closest professional allies remain co‑founders Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Pandey, who continue to oversee product and strategy at Inshorts. On Shark Tank India he swaps stories with fellow newcomers Ritesh Agarwal, Deepinder Goyal, and Ronnie Screwvala, alongside returning sharks Aman Gupta, Peyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal, Namita Thapar, and Vineeta Singh. Venture backers such as Tiger Global, Vy Capital, and Times Internet have funded his startups through multiple rounds, while Azhar credits Flipkart co‑founder Sachin Bansal for inspiring his “drop‑out and build” leap of faith.
