Man of the match

Janakiraman, who is in the business of helping people find their other half, tells Shine Jacob how his venture has been a deeply personal journey

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"Why Matrimony.com?" When I announce that I am meeting Murugavel Janakiraman, the founder of Matrimony.com—best known for its flagship brand BharatMatrimony and other matchmaking spinoffs—this question comes not from my editor but from my wife. With a raised eyebrow and a hint of sarcasm, she says: "Go, find a match."

Later that afternoon, at Matrimony.com's fifth-floor office at TVH Beliciaa Towers in Chennai, overlooking the Bay of Bengal, her voice still lingers in my head. Was she annoyed—or relieved? I am not sure. That's a question to be parked for later, I think, turning my attention to the man at the centre of India's digital matchmaking revolution.

Enter Murugavel—or Muruga, as he likes to be called—dressed in a striped shirt and blue trousers. At 52, he has the air of a man comfortable in his skin, one who has told his story often but is not weary of retelling it.

His company has just marked 25 years in business, closing the 2024-25 financial year (FY25) with a revenue of ₹425 crore. And yet, Muruga is not the archetypal tech founder. His journey is as much about grit and accident as it is about strategy—a story that begins in a dimly lit room in North Chennai.

For the first 23 years of his life, the family had no electricity at home, Muruga recalls, settling into the conference room of his 20,000 sq ft office. The family of four lived in a 300 sq ft room in Royapuram in north Chennai. His father was a labourer at Madras Port Trust; both his parents were unlettered. "I grew up studying under kerosene lamps. My parents were uneducated, and I was the first in the family to go to high school," he says. In fact, in his entire extended circle, he was only the second person to attend college.