Forbes India 30 Under 30 2023: Meet our young achievers and gamechangers

Founded along with a few seniors while studying at BITS Pilani, Pepper Content is a content marketplace that started by charging a modest 15 paise per word. Today, the company has over 2,500 customers and claims to have over 1.2 lakh content creators. It has raised $18 million from a battery of funders and angels including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Tanglin VP, Titan Capital, Gokul Rajaram (DoorDash, Pinterest), Kunal Shah (CRED), Dheeraj Pandey (Nutanix, Adobe) and Ashish Gupta (Helion VC)

Shamani's House of X is backed by an impressive clutch of entrepreneurs like Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, Asish Mohapatra, OfBusiness; Shashank Kumar, RazorPay; Sahil Barua, Delhivery; Varun and Ghazal Alagh, Mamaearth; Vineeta Singh, SUGAR Cosmetics. The popular social media finfluencer (finance influencer) turned entrepreneur's House of X is creator-led and will help creators launch and scale their consumer brands. Shamani is not new to brand-building: his podcast Figuring Out hit 100 million views in the last 12 months, and he's an angel investor in nine startups

NEERX's smart sensor, Shool, analyses soil health in a couple of seconds to equip the farmer with real-time information. Information like pest infestation, water and fertiliser retention, and productivity on the sensor-synced mobile app helps improve harvest and farmer income. The sensor, which started as a college project for Nikita Tiwari and Harsh Agrawal, was developed for industrial use from 2019 onwards and is priced at Rs 12,000 and can be rented at Rs 1,000-2,000 per month. It replaces the one- or two-week process that a traditional laboratory would take to ascertain soil health. NEERX works with farmers across Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and has tie-ups with 60 organisations that impact 15,000-20,000 farmers

Rithika Pandey is an artist from Varanasi, who grew up in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya before coming to Mumbai. She draws from mythology and science fiction to create alternative visions of worlds that transgress trauma and catastrophe as an endpoint. She does this by bringing human and non-human relationships into the picture, to consider how we relate to, what she calls, the more-than-human world that includes plants, animals, land and invisible forces that shape events. Her solo show at the Grosvenor Gallery in May 2022 was a huge success, with interest from many private collectors and a few institutions

Udit Singhal, at 16, started finding solutions to glass bottles piling up at home. Since then, his resultant Glass2Sand has recycled over 65,000 glass bottles into 39,000 kgs of industry-grade silica-rich sand, reducing 270,000 kg carbon emissions. The business, which uses a 550-strong volunteer network to collect glass bottles, has existing partnerships with 18 diplomatic missions. It has received interest from Peru, the Philippines, the US, and more, and has the capacity to reduce glass waste in landfills and mining of sand—already the most extracted resource after water—if adopted at scale

This 29-year-old is striving to increase the use of renewables in industries which uses fossil fuels for 75 percent of its energy needs. Makar's solar thermal energy technology uses less space than rivals, is cheaper due to domestic value chains and has better technical efficiency. How it works is its thermal concentrators reflect sunlight onto a receiver where liquids get converted into steam that can either be stored or be converted into electricity. With 80 percent of Climatenza Solar's projects in India and the other 20 in Bangladesh, Makar's company has a 23 MW capacity in the pipeline with the option to scale it to 273 MW in the next five years. It recently signed a deal with Coca-Cola to deploy its tech at four plants. It also works with Rallis India, Tata Chemicals, Unilever, and others

At 29, Misbah Ashraf can call himself a serial entrepreneur. Jar, his third venture, is finally doing wonders for the young founder who has learnt crucial lessons from two failed enterprises. The fintech venture, which helps users save and invest, started with gold. It has crossed over 11 million users in 18 months and clocks 300,000 transactions daily. The venture has raised $58 million from Tiger Global, Rocketship.vc, and Akram Ventures. Ashraf's goal is to reintroduce the young generation to the concept of piggy banks and help them form a habit of saving

Aashti Miller, a Cornell graduate, is a Mumbai-based architect who founded her practice to unite her professional career as an architect with her passion for illustration and graphic design. Her commitment to merging seemingly disparate fields has helped her develop a unique style that combines constructed and painted elements, digital and analogue techniques, and two- and three-dimensional designs. She has collaborated with Michael Kors, CRED, and the St+art India Foundation. Her illustrations can be seen through murals painted in Delhi and Chennai for the Goethe Institute, and also in Birmingham, UK, for the 2022 Commonwealth Games

UR Siddharth is inundated with international design awards—85 to his name so far—but his most prized is the iF design award that he won not once but twice for his products 'Survive' and 'Enable'. The NID graduate's Survive is the first-of-its-kind automated gastric irrigation device which flushes out poisons or toxins within minutes compared to the 45 minutes taken by a conventional machine and can be deployed in remote areas or ambulances or a hospital in the absence of an expert. His Project Enable entailed the designing of a heart-lung machine to support the perfusionist manage normal blood flow, body temperature and other respiratory functions during an emergency open heart surgery. At 24, Siddharth has four patents pending and two designs registered by the IPR cell

Fashion content creator Sakshi Sindwani is changing the conversation around body image and body positivity with her content on Instagram. Sindwani, who dabbled with YouTube before finding her groove on Instagram, boasts of a following of 535,000. She is the first inclusive model to have collaborated with and walked the ramp for designers like Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, and Masaba Gupta. Her passion stems from her experience of being bullied while growing up. Today, she aims to inspire people to redefine conventional beauty standards and increase inclusive representation in media and entertainment

Hailing from a village that churns out wrestlers, and born into a farmers' family, Vikram Singh didn't have too many natural options for a career beyond the two. However, determined as he was, he convinced his father and many naysayers to chart his own path. After an engineering degree and an MBA under his belt, Singh joined OfBusiness in 2017. Three years later, when the position of head of raw materials business, opened up, he threw his hat in the ring. Today, he handles a team of 400 and a P&L of Rs 15,000 crore. His business unit, which entails a team of freshers hired by Singh, now makes up 70 percent of all OfBusiness revenue

Foxtale began when its founder asked the crucial question every entrepreneur must ask: What is missing in this segment? In this instance, Mazumdar wanted to answer, "What is it women find missing in their skincare products?" She spoke to over a thousand and found the problem she wanted to solve. There was a dearth of skincare products that were quick to solve issues and those that could be used consistently—the ones that worked were either too expensive or not easily available. Mazumdar launched Foxtale to create a skincare brand that was both consistent and affordable. The company, which has raised $4 million (Rs 30 crore) so far, claims it is on par to become a Rs 100 crore brand this year

PrepInsta works like an OTT platform for engineering students from Tier I and Tier II cities, who want to upskill to land their dream job. Users get access to over 200 courses for a fixed amount of time—a few months or years—for an annual fee that is as low as Rs 4,000 or Rs 5,000 compared to Rs 50,000 or Rs 1 lakh charged by rivals, thereby making it more accessible. Courses include training in cloud computing and artificial intelligence or interview preparation subjects such as aptitude, logic, verbal and personality development. Users also get the opportunity to top it off with an internship with TCS. Currently, the profitable enterprise has 2.25 lakh paid subscribers and is expecting Rs 20-25 crore in revenue this year

Scrut Automation helps companies automate their GRC—Governance, Risk and Compliance—needs. Founded in late 2021, the company has raised $3.1 million in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Endiya Partners. Scrut boasts of about 200 enterprise customers in markets including the US and EU, although the bulk of its revenues come from Asia-Pacific. Scrut is also in the process of setting up a marketplace for CISOs to find external consultants and experts to manage the security needs of an enterprise

She's one of Malayalam cinema's most promising actors. The fashion and apparel design graduate answered a casting call and gave an audition before she was chosen for Kumbalangi Nights. Since then, Anna Ben has essayed diverse roles—many women-centric ones with a strong message—that have displayed her versatility, in films including Helen, Sara's and Night Drive

Kalidas Jayaram was 10 when he won his first National Award as an actor for his performance in Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum (2003). Many years later, in 2020, the lessons learnt as a child artiste would turn the fortunes around for Jayaram, who was struggling to make a mark after he returned to acting after completing his studies. Jayaram was planning to quit when he landed the role of Sathaar, a transgender individual, in Thangam for Netflix's anthrology Paava Kadhaigal in 2020. Since then, he's worked with some of Indian cinema's best filmmakers, and has five-six projects in Tamil and Malayalam in his kitty, including films by Bejoy Nambiar and Balaji Mohan, and the directorial debut of actor Parvathy Thiruvothu

The founder of the Jaipur-based fashion label considers himself an outsider in the fashion world. Harry Styles has worn HARAGO's hand-embroidered carrot farm shorts. Tan France asked to wear the label on the popular Netflix makeover show Queer Eye. Today, HARAGO retails at London-based clothing retailer Matches Fashion, Montreal-based multi-brand retailer Ssense, LMDS Shanghai, and Boyhood, Korea, to name a few

One of the youngest vice presidents at Lightspeed, Anuvrat Jain, is one of the founding members of Lightspeed's India and SE Asia Growth investment teams. He has also been on the board of three portfolio companies—Yubi, Awfis and Shipper. Jain's successes have come with the Razorpay deal in May 2022, with Lightspeed investing in the fintech's $75 million secondary share sale. Jain's relationship and persistence with the co-founders paid off and helped unlock the opportunity for the team to tap in meaningfully

Avinash Ramanathan is part of the investment committee at Kalaari Capital and is responsible for sourcing deals and managing and exiting companies. He leads investments in SaaS, gaming, deep tech, climate and Web3. From being part of the fundraising as an analyst to sitting on boards, handling conflicts of all flavours, and investing in sunrise sectors which are really early in their maturity, Ramanathan has done it all. He was part of the leadership team raising $220 million for Kalaari Fund IV with Reliance as an anchor LP

Niyati Rao and Sagar Neve started EKÅA when the world was shutting down amid the pandemic and hospitality was the most hit. Their restaurant, which is not built on any particular cuisine but on food interpreted and inspired by people, cultures and ingredients, has found takers. The cofounders claim EKÅA is already profitable. In 2022, the partners launched KMC, which Rao describes as an inclusive community space to converse or hold exhibitions while enjoying creative comfort food

Loop bundles health insurance coverage for employees with access to a primary care doctor, unlimited free consultations, and discounted diagnostics. Loop serves as a broker between a company and an insurance provider and earns a percentage of the annual premium that the former pays the latter, for bringing them on board. It has raised $40 million from top-tier investors and has 'looped' in 600 companies so far, across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune. 450,000 employees and their families use the services. The company is also piloting physical Loop clinics where employees can pop in for a check-up

A founding member of the Niramai team, which provides screening to ensure early detection of breast cancer, Siva Teja Kakileti is its principal research scientist, leading machine learning activities at the company. A PhD from Maastricht University, his doctorate thesis focussed on machine learning for breast cancer detection in developing countries. He is credited as a co-inventor of 24 patent grants and played a key role in the IP creation for Niramai

Metalbook is an online marketplace for the iron and steel supply chain built out of the need to use technology to disrupt the industry at a global scale. Clients in India and overseas are eligible for financial and logistical support for their orders. Baldev claims Metalbook's customer repeat rate is 95 percent. In its first year of operations, it hit a gross merchandise value of Rs 100 crore and ended FY22 with Rs 800 crore

The 27-year-old singer-songwriter from Ludhiana rose to fame when his first studio release Baarishein blew up and garnered a huge following. With nine singles released so far, including Mazaak, Mishri, Gul and Alag Aasmaan, Jain says his every song stems from something he's experienced in life. With over four million monthly users on Spotify, Jain is just getting started and means serious business. He's working on plans that will take him to the 100X level

Music has always been a part of her life, but she only took it up professionally in 2016. And from Ambika Nayak's first gig at a party in Mumbai in 2017 to playing at the Nariyal Paani festival in Alibaug with her then band, Kayan—her stage name—has come a long way, and commands over 70,000 listeners on Spotify monthly. She's played at gigs across the globe as a DJ and made her debut as a live performer at the NH7 Weekender in 2022. In the same year, she was also picked as a part of Spotify Radar and YouTube Foundry, where she was one of two Indian artists among 30 picked from around the world by the video-streaming platform

Genrobotics, founded in 2017, has a robot scavenger that can take over the outlawed practice of manual scavenging that still claims lives in India. Today, the company also provides solutions for the healthcare, sanitation, oil and gas sectors, intending to build robots for all cleaning requirements. It works with 85 urban local bodies across 17 states and three union territories in India. It also has a rehabilitation programme for those who worked as manual scavengers. The programme, which has thus far helped 3,000 people, teaches them to operate the robot, thereby ensuring their income isn't lost by the automation

Nostos Homes is a non-profit that builds modular, lightweight and easily transportable shelters that can help displaced persons. Shetty, who was displaced by annual floods in his village and later moved to Mumbai, says Nostos provides a robust and safe place at the cost of a tent that also helps restore privacy, dignity and safety in times of crisis. The company has provided its solution so far in Assam, Nagaland, and also in Africa. It is also in talks with various governments and agencies to scale up

With just 534m to go in the finals of the 3000m steeplechase event at the Commonwealth Games in August 2022, Sable overtook two Kenyans at the final water jump. He was in contention for a silver, beating defending Commonwealth champion and two-time world champion Conseslus Kipruto. Eventually, Sable created history by becoming the first non-Kenyan since 1994 to win a silver at the steeplechase event. He is confident of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics

In 2022, Rankireddy and Shetty won two world tour titles—the Indian Open and the French Open—a gold at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) and a bronze at the World Championships. Most of these feats are a first by Indian men’s doubles shuttlers. The duo was also part of the historic Thomas Cup team that won India its maiden title and contributed to the victory by winning their match in the final despite being multiple match points down. They ended the year at World No 5 rank—their career-best

Rai leveraged his learnings from Wall Street and Morgan Stanley to build his cryptocurrency startup Gamma Point Capital—a hedge fund that invests in digital assets and blockchain technology. It was acquired by Miami-based crypto hedge fund BlockTower Capital for $35 million, and Rai is now the co-head of Market Neutral, at BlockTower, where he manages a $150 million crypto hedge fund. Rai has also invested in Indian Web3 startups and works closely with venture capital firms to invest in and mentor early-stage Web3 startups