Baskaran Kandiah is a Sri Lankan businessman who is the co-founder and Director of Lebara Group, a European telecoms company with operations in six countries. He is also the Chairman of London Tamil Media, the holding company of IBC Tamil, a popular Tamil TV channel based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He also owns Dick Holdings B.V, registered in Netherlands. He also recently bought TamilWin, LankaSri, CineUlagam, Manitham websites and own fair share of Tamil Media empire.

Early life

Karan was born in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, in a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

family to Sharathadevi and Kandiah, from a humble background. He spent his childhood in Sri Lanka. He had a special liking for Tamil language and its literature from a very young age which was further nurtured by his mother. He later moved to Netherlands and established himself as a successful entrepreneur in a few years.

Career

He founded the Lebara Group in 2001 with Leon R. Ranjith and Ratheesan Yoganathan. In October 2016, it expanded its services by launching Lebara Money in the UK for customers wishing to send money abroad. In 2015 Lebara launched Play, an OTT based media platform and Talk, a VoIP app based messenger service. Karan also co-founded Lebara Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lebara with Leon R. Ranjith and

Ratheesan Yoganathan Ratheesan Yoganathan (born 6 December 1975) is a British entrepreneur who, with Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah, is best known as the co-founder of Lebara Group. On 10 August 2012 he took on the role of ex Chairman of Lebara Group an ...

. The Foundation is guided by the provisions and principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The projects are delivered in partnership with the United Nations, international non-governmental organisations, the private sector, national governments and local communities. Karan also invested in reviving

IBC Tamil IBC Tamil (The International Broadcasting Corporation for Tamil) is a mass media company offering 24-hour television, radio and online services to the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Headquartered in London, the company is licensed and regulated under ...

which was launched as a radio station in London in 1997. From 2014 onwards, it is owned and run by London Tamil Media Ltd who, in April 2015, expanded the organization to include the television channel as well as a revamped news website updated round the clock. Headquartered in London, the channel’s core audience consists of Diaspora Tamils from Sri Lanka, India and elsewhere.

Personal life

Karan is married and has two children. He lives in

Beverwijk Beverwijk () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast. A ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kandiah, Baskaran British people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Living people Sri Lankan Tamil businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) People from Beverwijk