Akshay Ruparelia
Akshay Ruparelia
Akshay Ruparelia (born 16 July 1998) is a British internet entrepreneur. He is the founder of Doorsteps, a UK based online Estate agent.[9]
Biography
Akshay Ruparelia founder of Doorsteps
Ruparelia was born in Hemel Hempstead, he attended Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet, in Harrow, London.[11]
Ruparelia had an offer to study economics and mathematics at University of Oxford but has decided to put that on hold to grow Doorsteps.
Awards & Recognition
In May 2018, he was ranked by The Sunday Times Rich List "Britain's Millionaire Entrepreneurs Under 30".[14]
He was included as one of the "15 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2018" by Startups.co.uk and he was also featured in the TransferWise "Top 20 Under 20".[15]
In 2019 Crowdcube listed Ruparelia as one of "Top 5 Entrepreneurs of The Year" and he was featured in The Great British Entrepreneur Awards (GBEA) for the "20 Most Exciting Entrepreneurs to Watch For In 2019".[18]
He was also featured in The Evening Standard "25 Future Faces 25 and Under" list.[17]
Crowdfunding
Ruparelia has conducted two rounds of Crowdfunding to raise capital for Doorsteps using the equity investing platform Crowdcube. In the first stage, he raised £395,480 of its £400,000 target. 3.23% equity of the company was distributed to 492 investors. In the second round, he raised £889,340, double the £400,000 capital target. As per the latest round, 4.71% equity was issued to 655 investors.[18]
The start-up was valued at £12 million in its first year.
In 2020, Doorsteps was valued at £18 million making it the third-largest online estate agent and tenth-largest Estate agent in the United Kingdom.[16]
Charity
In March 2020, Ruparelia became an ambassador for a non-profit organisation, Royal Association for Deaf people. He is a board member of The Prince's Trust RISE young philanthropy campaign. He is also an ambassador for the Harrow United Deaf Club and supporter of the Step Up to Serve program by iwill Campaign.