Meet the billionaire face behind Divi’s Laboratories - Murali Divi

This self-made billionaire’s life journey is quite inspiring.

Murali Divi, chairman and managing director of Divi’s Laboratories, belongs to a simple family from a small town in Andhra Pradesh. From the struggles of his teenage career and financial crisis to becoming an Indian billionaire, Divi’s life story is nothing less than inspiring.

During his early career period, Murali struggled with studies due to weak English language skills. Increasing financial stress on the family made him realize the need to work harder and get better. After completing his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from Kakatiya University, Telangana he seized the opportunity to work in various US research companies for several years. And when the opportunity to work at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories arrived, he returned to India. Back in 1984, he joined as a director at the newly established Dr Reddy’s Labs.

Dr Reddy’s had acquired a distressed company called Cheminor, a contract manufacturing company. Murali Divi took the lead and became the MD of Cheminor and eventually made it a big turnaround. Murali Divi had excellent leadership skills and had a strong connection with the workers. When he resigned from Cheminor, 125 employees resigned too on the same day which shows his impact on the business.

After working for six years as an MD, he went on to establish his own company Divi’s Laboratories in 1990. After five years of operations, it had built a 75-acre manufacturing facility in Hyderabad and thus began the exponential growth journey of India’s one of the leading API manufacturing companies. The company has a market capitalization of over Rs 1.19 lakh crore. It has become one of the largest manufacturers of naproxen (an anti-inflammatory drug) in the world.

According to Forbes real-time wealth tracker, Murali Divi is currently the 19th richest person in India with an estimated net worth of Rs 63,000 crore as of 4th April 2022.