- Saturday, July 27, 2024
Eighty-six entries in the prestigious list were from India in areas such as consumer technology, industry, manufacturing and energy, healthcare, finance and venture capital.
By: Shubham Ghosh
US BUSINESS magazine Forbes on Thursday (16) launched the ninth edition of its “30 Under 30 Asia” list, recognising 300 entrepreneurs, leaders and outstanding individuals below 30 in the Asia-Pacific region who are leading innovation and playing a big role in transforming industries.
India saw the maximum number of entries (86) in the latest list, followed by China and Japan with 32 each, Singapore with 27, Australia with 26, and Indonesia with 18. The list represented a diverse group with entries from 21 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific.
Among the Indians who were chosen for the list were those from consumer technology; industry, manufacturing and energy; healthcare; finance and venture capital to entertainment and sports.
The 2024 list represents a diverse group from 21 nations and territories across the Asia-Pacific region, with India leading with 86 entries, followed by China and Japan with 32 each, Singapore with 27, Australia with 26, and Indonesia with 18.
Read: Eight Indian-origin personalities in TIME’s ‘100 most influential’ list
Here are some of the Indians who were picked for the prestigious list:
Oshi Kumari, Devyant Bhardwaj and Arth Chowdhary
In 2020, Oshi Kumari, Devyant Bhardwaj and Arth Chowdhary co-founded InsideFPV, an Indian drone start-up. Their main product is a user-friendly “plug-and-fly” drone. Based in Surat in the western state of Gujarat, the company also sells drones and their parts online. The startup has till date secured half a million US dollars in funding from investors, including Inflection Point Ventures
George Francis
George Francis is the chief technology officer (CTO) at Conzumex Industries which is based in Bengaluru, India’s IT capital. It is an wearables company and is renowned for its brand Muse, which specialises in making activity and health tracker-equipped smartwatches besides glucose-monitoring equipment. Francis joined the firm in 2017 and became the CTO in 2020.
Read: Meet Renuka Jagtiani, India’s latest billionaire in Forbes 2024 list
Harshit Jain and Abhik Saha
The duo in 2019 set up OnePlay, a cloud-gaming startup based in Mumbai. It uses cloud infrastructure to allow users to play popular video games across multiple platforms, including Windows PC, macOS, iOS and Android, without needing expensive hardware. Last year, OnePlay raised nearly $2 million in funding from investors, which included Inflection Point Ventures.
Kush Jain
Co-founder of ORama AI, a company that works on making aiding technologies and developed a smart glove to assist people who are blind or have visual impairments in learning Braille. The 22-year-old co-founded the venture after learning about difficulties that those with visual challenges face, while volunteering at a school in Bengaluru in 2018. ORama AI has gathered half a million dollars in funding since the product’s inception in 2022.
Akshit Bansal and Raghav Arora
Akshit Bansal and Raghav Arora work under the brand Statiq and helm Sharify Services, which is based in Gurugram. Their venture includes a nationwide network of charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs), including cars, buses, trucks, and three-wheelers. These stations have quick charging capacities and can replenish an EV’s battery in just 15 minutes. Consumers can pre-book time slots and remotely manage the charging.
Gautham Maheswaran and Arun Sreyas
University friends Gautham Maheswaran and Arun Sreyas co-founded RACE Energy in Hyderabad in 2018. It specialises in making swappable battery packs made for the three-wheeled auto-rickshaws that ply in India. Since its inception, RACE Energy says it has enabled an average of more than 1,000 on a daily basis. The company has reportedly raised a total of $4 million in funding, including from India’s GrowX Ventures, Forbes said.
Ankit Jain and Narayan Lal Gurjar
Ankit Jain and Narayan Lal Gurjar co-founded EF Polymer, an agriculture startup, in 2018. The company has created a powder-like polymer-based water-retention product from biodegradable materials like bananas and orange peels. It helps retain soil moisture and improve crop yields by absorbing excess moisture and gradually releasing water into the soil. EF Polymer has raised more than $4 million in funding from investors such as Beyond Next Ventures, Forbes informed.
Aniket Damle
An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Aniket Damle is a member of the private equity investment team at Blackstone and is responsible for investments in the healthcare, consumer and industrial sectors in India. His first deal, which materialised when he was 23, happened when Blackstone tied up with Sona BLW to make Sona Comstar, an EV-focused technology platform company, in 2018. Damle also mentors students at his alma mater.
Yeshu Agarwal
Yeshu Agarwal co-founded Transak, a web-based payment gateway that simplifies the process of purchasing and selling non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies. Recently, Transak unveiled a partnership with Visa that enables users to transfer cryptocurrencies from wallets directly to a Visa debit card.
Srinivas Sarkar and Kushagra Manglik
The duo founded Coupl, a financial technology startup that caters to couples, irrespective of their marital status or sexual orientation, in order to help them better manage their finances through joint accounts and linked ATM cards. Non-regular couples often find challenges in opening joint accounts in traditional Banks and require to maintain a high minimum balance. Coupl has the backing of Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First Global Fund.
Other Indian names that were selected for the prestigious list are Pranav Manpuria (industry, manufacturing and energy), Kunal Aggarwal (enterprise technology), Aditya Dadia (enterprise technology), Yashvardhan Kanoi (finance and venture capital), Manish Maryada (finance and venture capital), Karan Ahuja (healthcare and science), Aryan Chauhan (healthcare and science), Chirag Jain and Rama Krishna Mendu (industry, manufacturing and energy), Rahil Gupta (industry, manufacturing and energy), and Kavan Antani (media, marketing and advertising), among others.
Forbes’ Asia reporters and editors went through the profiles of 4,000 candidates and a panel of independent judges assessed factors such as funding, revenue, social impact, scale, and others.
The panel included industry leaders such as Roshni Nadar Malhotra of HCLTech, Kai-Fu Lee of Sinovation Ventures, and SD Shibulal of Infosys.
