Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited

Wipro was founded in 1945 by Muhammad Hashim Premji as a vegetable oil producer in Amalner, India. Azim Premji took over at age 21 after his father's death and pivoted the company into IT services in the 1980s, riding India's software outsourcing boom. The Premji family retains a controlling stake of about 73% (per public filings, 2023), making the firm among the most valuable promoter-held companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Wipro's investment posture is channeled through corporate M&A and internal R&D. It has acquired over a dozen firms since 2020, including Appirio (cloud services), Capco (consulting), and Designit (digital design). Wipro operates in more than 50 countries, with major delivery centers in India, the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Its portfolio covers cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI/ML automation, and enterprise software, serving clients in banking, healthcare, and telecom. As of 2025, Wipro employs around 230,000 people globally. The firm runs its $1B+ philanthropic arm, the Azim Premji Foundation, with a separate endowment. In October 2023, Rishad Premji stated that Wipro would invest $1B over three years in AI capabilities and talent (per The Economic Times, October 2023). The family office component, Premji Invest, manages a separate pool estimated at several billion dollars for direct investments and venture capital. Wipro's structural differentiator is its dual identity: a public IT services giant controlled by a single family that also operates a dedicated family office (Premji Invest) and a major charitable foundation. This three-vehicle structure — operating company, family office, and foundation — is rare among Indian business families. Succession passed smoothly from Azim to Rishad Premji in 2019, a governance milestone for a firm where the promoter family retains outsized control.