Cyrus Poonawalla

Net worth over time

Biography

• Son of a horse breeder, Cyrus Poonawalla founded Serum Institute of India in 1966 and built it into the world's largest vaccine maker (by doses).
• Headquartered in Pune city, close to Mumbai, Serum produces over 1.5 billion doses annually of a range of vaccines, including for measles, polio and flu.
• Under his U.K.-educated son Adar, Serum's CEO, the company invested $800 million at the peak of the pandemic to build a new factory in Pune to make Covid-19 vaccines.
• Poonawalla's assets include a majority stake in listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp as well as a stake in The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pune.
• In 2023, his son Adar bought Aberconway House, a mansion in London's Mayfair, for 138 million pounds.
• Son Adar, featured in Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list, is one of the brand ambassadors for the government's 'Clean India' mission.
• Poonawalla has an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Oxford, which is constructing the Cyrus Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building.
• Serum's Covishield, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was the most widely used in India during the pandemic.
• In 2022, Poonawalla was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors.

Financial assets