Forbes Asia’s 2019 list of 30 Under 30 features 300 young innovators and disruptors from 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Listed across 10 categories, they are an ambitious yet socially conscious bunch of entrepreneurs, leaders and stars who are re-inventing their industries and driving change across this diverse region. Here is the story of the other KGPians who have made it to the coveted list and done their alma mater proud.
Subhadeep Mondal (2013/BTech/Biotech) and S.L. Sivareena (2015/BTech/ME), co-founders of PregBuddy, India’s first AI-enabled care continuum platform for the care of expecting mothers, have made it to Forbes Asia’s list of 30 Under 30 in the category of Healthcare & Science.
PregBuddy is India’s first peer-to-peer instant reassurance platform for expecting mothers. It provides would-be mothers personalised information throughout the entire course of their pregnancy, connecting them together based on their trimester, location, vernacular language, and medical conditions. The PregBuddy app also provides a continuum of care between the gynaecologist and the expecting patients through ‘Connected Care’ for Doctors. Its objective is to provide personalised care through health experts and doctors from pre-conception to the early years of motherhood, and help women take informed decisions about them and their child.
On Forbes Asia’s recognition of their efforts, Sivareena said, “It’s an extreme pleasure and a proud moment when the efforts of a small team create an impact which gets noticed globally. We’re now more than determined to assist millions of care receivers to stay healthy while transforming the care delivery with smarter engagement and meaningful relationship between care receivers and providers.” So far, PregBuddy has assisted over 100,000 mothers across India and has penetration into rural areas with partnered hospitals. Subhadeep said, “We’re planning to extend our services abroad, across the APAC countries later this year.”
Sivareena added, “Subhadeep and I have worked together since our college days, where we brought the spirit of business and entrepreneurship to college through events, conference and global student exchange programs.” PregBuddy will be soon expanding its services to other conditions that require repetitive care between provider and patients in order to ensure that it can transform patient-provider interactions from reactive and episodic to a relationship that is pro-active and collaborative.
Kalyan Babu Kuramana (2015/MSc/MA/HJB) was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in the category of Social Entrepreneurs. He is the Co-Founder and CTO at TAI, building an innovative EdTech venture. TAI provides a revolutionary learning solution for K-12 students that focuses on strengthening their fundamental skills, and thus helps the learning process. Through simple implementation of work sheets and world class gaming technology backed by neuroscience and AI, TAI can pinpoint the exact skill gap area of the learner and correct it.
On his entry on Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list for 2019, Kalyan said, “I feel deeply humbled and grateful that what I had started as a dream to empower 21st-century students is now being recognized globally. It is truly fulfilling and satisfying to change the lives of younger people with innovation and technology.”
Kalyan has created flagship products that enable TAI to make learning fun and ensure speed, clarity and retention in every learning session and bring personalization and adaptability with self-learning algorithms. “Product and technology are my forte,” he recently told KGP Chronicle. TAI’s gamified intelligent platform teaches children maths and 40 other learning skills. The learning methodology has changed the lives of 1.5 million children worldwide and has been recognized by Barack Obama for an outstanding social venture.
Prior to TAI, Kalyan worked with Sendfast in the capacity of Technology Lead and as a Software Engineer with Myglamm and India.com. He has experience in building intelligent products and his products are used by more than one million users. “A lot of what I am today is because of IIT KGP. I can’t thank enough my professors, my fellow batch mates and everyone else at KGP for inspiring me, keeping me grounded, fearless and, most importantly, helping me think big,” said Kalyan.
Pavan Guntupalli (2012/BTech/EC) has been listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list of 2019 in the Consumer Technology and Big Money section. He is the Co-founder of Rapido, a Bike-Taxi mobile app platform to book bike rides for travelling solo. Reacting to the Forbes Asia recognition, Pavan says that he is simply “elated”.
The Bike taxi startup raised $10 million (Rs 71 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Hong Kong-based multi-strategy private investment firm Integrated Capital recently. Currently, Rapido gets 2.5 million orders a month and plans to grow to 20 million orders by the end of this year. The company is also planning to reach out to 25 cities by the end of this year. Pavan says, “We are looking to effect a social change by creating job opportunities at zero cost as we take our services not only to all big cities but also to the towns like Siliguri, Guntur, Warangal, Jaisalmar, Patiala and others where there are very little job opportunities.” Anybody with a bike can undertake Rapido services. “So students, the unemployed, the retired, even farmers, can join Rapido.”
The start-up allows users to book bike rides for solo trips via a mobile app that can be accessed in multiple languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English. Rapido operates in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi among several other cities. There is also Rapido POOL, an on-demand ride sharing platform wherein anyone can register their bike and utilise their vacant seat by offering a ride. Rapido also provides helmets for safety.
Pavan thanked IIT Kharagpur for “inspiring” him to become an entrepreneur. “This is where I became aware of my social responsibility. We were among the finest students in the country. With a solid degree, family support, if we don’t take risks and do something for others, who will?” asked Pavan.
Nishant Dalmia (2014/BTech/CS/PH) made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in the category of Big Money and Industry, Manufacturing and Energy for his enterprise, Cogoport, which he co-founded and which is a digital freight logistics venture.
Cogoport’s online international freight exchange platform currently connects exporter and importers on the one hand and ocean and air freight carriers on the other. It offers price discovery and booking using a data-driven technology solution to make the most cost-effective match and also provides various value-added services like live tracking and analytics about shipment and the delivery process. Last year, Cogoport secured Series-A round of funding from Accel Partners.
Nishant mentors cross-channel engineering functions at Cogoport and also oversees and leads the other business functions. In his LinkedIn profile Nishant writes, “Machines and codes, entice me! Sophisticated algorithms capable of changing lives and creating sustainable value streams, is what I live for.” Nishant is a deep thinker, humanitarian, and serial entrepreneur, constantly thinking of improving the world through technology. Nishant has worked for renowned companies like Amazon and Housing.com but he loves to create a product from scratch and take it to the masses.
“Solving real world challenges is something which always excites me, and keeps me on my toes. Currently, digitizing and streamlining the processes in the international freight industry to bring transparency and ease, is a global issue, and I am working at it as well,” said Nishant.
Like the others, Nishant is thankful for his experiences at IIT Kharagpur. “KGP, having acted like a catalyst in keeping me motivated and enhancing my cross-functional skills, has not only helped me shape myself as an entrepreneur but has also helped me sustain the drive needed to be a global leader as well,” said Nishant.