B. Ravi Pillai

B. Ravi Pillai (born 2 September 1953) is a Dubai-based Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the RP Group. As of 2026, his net worth is estimated at billion.

Early life Ravi Pillai was born on 2 September 1953 at Chavara, a coastal town in Kollam, in the state of Kerala in Kadappa Pillai Veettil family.

He comes from a landlord background and once and still a well-established community. However, they lost their influence in the 20th century, after independence and the rise of communist movements. By the time of his father, they were middle class, with only some agricultural land remaining. He rose from a middle-class family to become extremely wealthy with his own hardwork.

He has a degree in Commerce from the University of Cochin. Later, he started an engineering contract business and worked for some of the major industrial houses in Kerala such as Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited, Hindustan Newsprint Limited, and Cochin Refineries. Two years later, he moved into construction, and established Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation (NSH) with 150 employees, The shopping mall in South Kerala, RP Mall at Kollam city is owned by Pillai.

Pillai has expanded his business to other countries including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, and has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries. Kollam, and WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu, Kozhikode in his home state of Kerala. He is involved in health care through Upasana Hospital and Research Centre, a 300-bed multispecialty hospital in Kollam.

Awards and recognition Pillai received an honorary doctorate from Excelsior College, New York, In 2010, the Government of India included him in the Republic Day honours list for the civilian honour of Padma Shri.

Arabian Business ranked him as the fourth most powerful Indian in the Middle East in 2015.

He paid for his daughter Arathi's wedding with Adithya Vishnu at Kollam in November 2015, at a total expense of ($7.5 million), in accordance with Nair customs and cultural traditions. The wedding was organized by the production designer who worked on the film, Baahubali: The Beginning, and is considered the most expensive wedding in Kerala to date. His son Ganesh Pillai married Anjana Suresh, an engineer, in September 2021.