Meet Roman Saini, the doctor-turned-IAS officer who owns ‘Unacademy’ worth USD $3.4 billion

It is the ultimate goal of every civil service aspirant to crack the UPSC exam and become an IAS or an IPS officer. However, this doctor-turned-IAS officer left his bureaucrat job to start a company that is worth USD $3.4 billion today.

Meet Roman Saini, the youngest person to clear the AIIMS exam at the age of 16. At the age of 18, he had already written a research paper for a prestigious medical publication. 

Saini went on to successfully complete his MBBS and was engaged at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) at AIIMS. He was earning well and doing well in life. However, during his MBBS, he was posted in Haryana’s Dayalpur village and saw how people were deprived of basic facilities.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Roman Saini (@romanunacademy)

That’s when Roman decided to go for the UPSC and become an IAS officer to serve the nation. At the age of 22, Roman passed the toughest UPSC Civil Services exam and went on to become the youngest IAS officer. 

He was initially posted as the District Collector of Madhya Pradesh. However, he soon left the bureaucrat job and co-founded ‘Unacademy’ with his friend Gaurav Munjal which is now worth Rs 28,000 crore.

Unacademy now helps thousands of IAS aspirants to prepare for UPSC exams that don’t require students to spend lakhs of rupees. Initially, they started Unacademy as a YouTube channel and it is now valued at USD $3.44 billion with more than 50 million active users.