Prabhakar Ram was born and brought up in Chennai. He graduated from Vivekananda College in 1988, earning a B. Com degree. The same year he joint Newman Press, a printing and packaging company. The broad experience from his 8-year stint at Newman Press provided Prabhakar the basis for a deep understanding of the printing and publishing business.

In 1996, Prabhakar founded Newgen Imaging Systems, a publishing services company, with 50 people on board, which now has grown to more than 900 people, in three locations, Chennai,
Bangalore and Austin. Carlye the venture fund made a major investment in Newgen in 2004.