Forbes India 30 Under 30: Meet the Class of 2020

30 Under 30 2020

Methodology

The process to arrive at the Forbes India 30 Under 30, an annual list of India’s brightest young stars, is three-fold. Through online applications, jury recommendations and Forbes India’s own rigorous research, a long list of 255 names was drawn up, and further shortlisted in consultation with category experts. Finally, the Forbes India editorial team vetted and vetoed its way down to the final 30.

Krishnakant Mishra
Krishnakant Mishra
Brand content lead, Ogilvy
Age: 28

Mishra criss-crossed India for 1,200 days over four years, leading HUL rural's high-stakes Kumbh campaign.

Vikash Bakrewala
Vikash Bakrewala
Division director, sales & marketing (South India), B9 Beverages
Age: 29

The youngest sales leader at the beer company, Bakrewala helped Bira and Boom expand to five geographical clusters in a year.

Ullas Samrat, Dhruv Khanna
Ullas Samrat, Dhruv Khanna
Co-founders, Triton Foodworks
Age: 29, 29

The self-funded startup uses hydroponics and low-cost, internet-enabled smart farms that use 300 times less land; clocked in Rs1 crore turnover last fiscal.

Sai Gole, Siddharth Dialani
Sai Gole, Siddharth Dialani
Co-founders, BharatAgri
Age: 26, 26

BharatAgri's algorithm tells farmers what to grow, when, and how to grow it to maximise production and farmer income.

Sanket Jadia
Sanket Jadia
Artist
Age: 28

The 28-year-old artist has developed a practice that deals with history and historical images that chronicle events of conflict and violence, and how it shapes the society's perception of them.

Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, SR Rishikesh
Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, SR Rishikesh
Co-founders, Rapido
Age: 28, 28, 27

Rapido's motorcycle taxis, now available in 100 cities across the country, have made the company one of the most sought-after startups in India.

Rishabh Karwa, Nitin Rana
Rishabh Karwa, Nitin Rana
Co-founders, GoMechanic
Age: 26, 29

The tech platform connects car-owners to quick, affordable and quality servicing, and raised Rs35 crore in a Series-A round in 2019.

Akanksha Deo Sharma
Akanksha Deo Sharma
Designer, Ikea
Age: 28

The only Indian designer at IKEA, Sharma uses Indian textile history, handicrafts and construction techniques to make minimal, playful products.

Bhuvan Bam
Bhuvan Bam
YouTuber
Age: 26

The first Indian YouTuber to hit 2 million subscribers, Bhuvan Bam now has 16 million, and was recently invited to the World Economic Forum.

Gaurav Chaudhary
Gaurav Chaudhary
YouTuber
Age: 28

You know him as Technical Guruji, his YouTube channel where he breaks down all things tech—not just as reviews but also how the tech works—for his 15 million subscribers.

Varun Khona
Varun Khona
Co-founder and CEO, Headout
Age: 29

Headout is an AI-powered platform to design curated tourist experiences for last-minute travellers, launched globally.

Ajai Thandi, Ashwajeet Singh, Arman Sood
Ajai Thandi, Ashwajeet Singh, Arman Sood
Co-founders, Sleepy Owl Coffee
Age: 29, 28, 28

Launched from a two-bedroom apartment in Delhi, the coffee brand, sold across 1,000 retail outlets in New Delhi and Mumbai, claims to have 60,000 customers.

Akshay Chaturvedi
Akshay Chaturvedi
CEO, Leverage Edu
Age: 29

Leverage Edu, a platform focussed on career counselling and university admission, has catered to about 10,000 students and is on course to clock Rs 10 crore in revenue in FY20.

Sai Pallavi
Sai Pallavi
Actor
Age: 27

Sai Pallavi did her first film when she was in Class 6 to miss math class. Today, after playing some memorable characters in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films, she wants to experiment with 'better roles' and 'chiselled characters'.

Palak Shah
Palak Shah
CEO, Ekaya
Age: 28

Shah is focused on propagating the versatility and global appeal of Indian heritage weaves, and with Ekaya, supports more than 8,000 weavers.

Akshat Bansal
Akshat Bansal
Founder, Bloni
Age: 29

Akshat Bansal reimagines the traditional chanderi fabric, and blends craft and technology to provide sustainable solutions that are also fashion forward.

Ajeesh Achuthan
Ajeesh Achuthan
Co-founder and CTO, Open
Age: 28

27-year-old Ajeesh Achuthan's Open is a neo-banking platform, especially catered to making financial operations easy for startups and MSMEs.

Nikhil Kumar
Nikhil Kumar
Co-founder, Setu
Age: 29

Nikhil Kumar has created APIs for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and led the team that built BHIM. His platform, Setu, helps connect companies to financial services providers.

Abhay Rangan
Abhay Rangan
CEO, Goodmylk
Age: 22

Goodmylk was set up with the aim to make plant-based milk affordable in India. Apart from vegan milk, it retails vegan yogurt, mayonnaise and butter from vegetable oils.

Krishna Gupta
Krishna Gupta
Founder, 1441 Pizzeria
Age: 27

Gupta's 1441 Pizzeria employs Italian wood ovens and offers a Make Your Own Pizza option. Its revenue grew from Rs 2.88 cr in 2017 to Rs 8.41 cr in 2019.

Priya Prakash
Priya Prakash
Founder and CEO, HealthSetGo
Age: 28

Bullied for being overweight as a child, Prakash set up HealthSetGo to provide health programmes in schools and is now focused on policy advocacy too.

Gourish Singla
Gourish Singla
Founder, Shivom
Age: 26

Aiming to make India disease-free in 5 years, Shivom provides genetic data to pharma companies, while ensuring the individual remains anonymous and is incentivised.

Jubin Varghese, Ameya Gadiwan
Jubin Varghese, Ameya Gadiwan
Co-founders, Gegadyne Energy
Age: 25, 24

Gegadyne Energy has developed a proprietary non-lithium battery technology that can charge a car battery from 0 to 100 percent in under 15 minutes.

Eshan Sadasivan
Eshan Sadasivan
CEO, PROSOC Innovators
Age: 29

29-year-old Eshan Sadasivan's company is the maker of the lightweight Deskit bag, which has a foldable study table attached for rural students.

Abhishek Gupta, Rishabh Verma
Abhishek Gupta, Rishabh Verma
CEO and COO, NavGurukul
Age: 27, 24

NavGurukul runs a one-year residential programme for low-income youth, to train them in employable software coding skills.

Suthirth Vaidya, Abhijith Chunduru, Adarsh Raj
Suthirth Vaidya, Abhijith Chunduru, Adarsh Raj
CEO, CTO, Chief Architect and Co-founders, Predible Health
Age: 27, 26, 27

Predible Health uses AI to analyse radiology imaging, helping doctors identify diseases and abnormalities.

Saurabh Chaudhary
Saurabh Chaudhary
Shooter
Age: 17

He has won two golds at the Asian Games, a world record in 10m air pistol, and a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Deepak Punia
Deepak Punia
Wrestler
Age: 21

Deepak Punia became the first Indian in 18 years to win a Junior World Championship, and will represent India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Akhil Aryan
Akhil Aryan
Co-founder, ION Energy
Age: 28

To accelerate the transition to an all-electric future, the battery management and intelligence platform uses analytics to improve battery performance.

Amiya Adwitiya, Sisir Koppaka
Amiya Adwitiya, Sisir Koppaka
CEO and CTO, Squadcast
Age: 29, 29

Squadcast is a SaaS company that ensures that the IT systems of its customers are running seamlessly, fixing everything from simple glitches to complete breakdowns.

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