Section 35
Bharti Enterprises
Started as: Making bicycle crankshafts in Ludhiana
- founded
- 1976
- founder
- Sunil Bharti Mittal
- headquarters
- New Delhi
- 65+
- Airtel customers across operations (crore) · 2026
- 15
- Countries where Airtel operates in India and Africa · 2026
The story
Sunil Bharti Mittal started in 1976 with a small loan from his father, making crankshafts for bicycles in Ludhiana. He then traded and imported goods, and in the 1980s made push-button telephones.
When India opened mobile licences, he won the Delhi licence and launched Airtel in 1995. He focused on building the brand and customer base, and handed network and IT work to specialist partners.
Airtel later expanded to Africa. Today Airtel says it has more than 650 million customers in 15 countries, and Bharti also holds stakes in satellite and global telecom companies.
Where it works today
Telecom (Airtel)Satellite communicationsInsuranceReal estateFood (agri) business
Main companies
Bharti Airtel · Airtel Africa · Indus Towers · Bharti AXA Life (Bharti Life) · Bharti Realty
Timeline
- 1976Sunil Mittal, aged 18, starts making bicycle crankshafts in Ludhiana.
- 1980sMoves to Mumbai and Delhi; imports generators, then makes push-button telephones.
- 1995Launches Airtel mobile service in Delhi.
- 2002Bharti Tele-Ventures (now Bharti Airtel) lists on the stock exchanges.
- 2010Airtel buys Zain's mobile business in Africa.
- 2020Bharti and the UK government jointly acquire satellite company OneWeb.
- 2022Airtel launches 5G services in India.
- 2024Bharti Global buys a 24.5% stake in Britain's BT Group.