Jyoti Bansal Journeys From Small Town Rajasthan To Tech Billionaire As Immigration Debate Rages

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India-West News Desk

SAN JOSE, CA – India born entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal’s journey from a small town in Rajasthan to Silicon Valley billionaire is a classic immigrant success story and one that stands out in these fraught times, when immigrants and H-1B visas are under political and cultural attack. Against that backdrop, Forbes has highlighted the rise of Bansal as a newly minted billionaire who built his fortune by creating companies and jobs in the United States.

Bansal, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, grew up far from the global tech hubs he would later help define. He has recalled that seeing Bill Gates visit an IIT campus and watching the rise of Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia planted the idea that global success was possible. That inspiration ultimately pushed him to leave India and head to the United States in search of bigger horizons, he told Forbes.

At just 21, Bansal arrived in California with only a few hundred dollars to his name. Like many immigrants, he spent his early years navigating the constraints of the U.S. visa system, working as an engineer at tech companies that sponsored his H-1B visa. The rules prevented him from launching a startup of his own, a restriction he has described as deeply ironic given America’s reputation for entrepreneurship. He told Forbes that he had to wait until securing a green card before he could build a company, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen in 2016.

That wait paid off. Bansal went on to found AppDynamics, which he sold to Cisco in 2017, and later launched Harness, an AI driven software delivery platform. Harness recently raised $240 million in a Series E round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Institutional Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures, according to Forbes. The funding valued the company at a level that cemented Bansal’s place among the world’s wealthiest founders.

Forbes estimates Bansal’s net worth at around $2.3 billion, largely tied to his roughly 30% stake in Harness, along with proceeds from the AppDynamics sale. After that first exit, he briefly attempted retirement, traveling the world before realizing that stepping away from building was not for him. He told Forbes that he discovered he enjoyed the challenge of creating companies far more than leisure.

Today, Bansal’s story stands out not just for its financial success, but for what it represents. From an immigrant constrained by visa rules to a self made billionaire shaping the future of software, his rise underscores how immigrant talent, when given the chance, continues to power innovation and redefine the American dream.