5-Hour Energy owner Manoj Bhargava is the richest Indian in US

Manoj Bhargava, the reclusive founder and CEO of 5-hour Energy, occupies one of the more unusual positions in American business: he is among the wealthiest people in the United States — Forbes put him at $1.5 billion in its 2012 rankings and called him the wealthiest Indian in America, with some estimates running as high as $4 billion — and almost nobody knows who he is.

Bhargava was born in Lucknow, India, and came to the United States as a teenager. After attending Princeton University for a year, he left without a degree and spent 12 years living in ashrams in India before returning to the United States and embarking on a series of business ventures. None of them was particularly successful until, in 2004, he launched a tiny 2-ounce bottle of energy supplement that would become one of the most successful consumer products in modern retail history.

5-hour Energy's rise was built on a deceptively simple insight: most people don't want to drink a large can of energy drink — they want a quick, efficient dose of alertness without the liquid volume. The product's small size made it perfect for placement at checkout counters, and Bhargava pursued an aggressive retail distribution strategy that eventually put 5-hour Energy in convenience stores, pharmacies, and grocery chains across the country.

Despite building a company that controls roughly 90 percent of the energy shot market and generates estimated annual revenues of more than $1 billion, Bhargava is legendarily press-averse and lives modestly relative to his net worth.

He has pledged the vast majority of his wealth to charity, with a particular focus on inventions and technologies that could improve living standards for people in the developing world. His private foundation has funded research into cheap water filtration, bicycle-powered electricity generation, and other practical technologies designed for communities without reliable infrastructure.

Bhargava's story is, in many ways, an archetypal American immigrant success narrative — and an unusual one.

Sources

• Five Indian Americans among Forbes 400 richest — CIOL
• The political kingmaker nobody knows — Center for Public Integrity