30 Under 30

Home

Lists

30 Under 30 2026

Breadcrumb

Banner

 Forbes India 30 Under 30 2026: Meet our young groundbreakers and trendsetters

years old - the youngest winner this year

Age of D Gukesh, youngest World Chess Champion and youngest listee

Kajol Bheda

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kajol Bheda spotted the explosive potential of brand storytelling, and in 2020 launched Scribbld, a Mumbai-based marketing and advertising agency. Armed with media production training from the UK and hard-won experience, Bheda set out to bridge the gap between what brands want to say and what agencies deliver. Today, Scribbld is a bootstrapped, profitable agency working with marquee brands including Nykaa, Adani Group, and Amazon Prime, standing out through discipline, clarity, and work that speaks for itself.

Founder, Scribbld 

Moumita Basak

Moumita Basak is an artist who works with Kantha stitch—an intrinsic part of Bengal’s textile heritage, used in everyday mundane drapes as well as exquisitely embroidered garments—textiles, waste cloths, along with tea and coffee tints that take on unique shapes and textures. While her studio-based practice is about her own experiences and conversations, her community-based practice is based on shared experiences of other participants. She has won several scholarship and awards at state, national and international levels, while her works have been exhibited by galleries across India, as well as in London, Spain and Poland.

Artist

number of women on the list

Vinay Gusain

Vinay Gusain is an artist and a printmaker, working with 
techniques such as aquatint and mezzotint. The 27-year-old has
 also created a mezzotint rocker, which has traditionally been 
available to artists in India only as an imported product; the
 imported tool roughly costs Rs 24,000, while Gusain’s version,
 sold under his company name Medwa Tools, costs about half.
 His most recent artworks focus on those who are marginalised,
 whether because of societal conditions, economic realities, 
or inner turmoil. Gusain’s artworks are able to portray the 
concept without the necessity of the associated environments
 or objects.

Artist, printmaker

Ritesh Singh Chandel, Sonu Kumar Prashant, Rushabh Kothari 

Arivihan, founded in 2021 by Ritesh Singh Chandel, Rushabh Kothari, and Sonu Kumar Prashant, aims to make high-quality, vernacular education accessible across Tier‑2/3 India through a fully automated AI tutor that teaches, adapts, and answers doubts in real time. Inspired by their own struggle to access affordable coaching in Indore, the platform offers state board and NEET preparation for just Rs 3,000 a year. Now active in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and backed by $4.17 million from Prosus and Accel, Arivihan handles seven lakh monthly queries with 97 percent accuracy and is expanding into Hindi-speaking states, with Bengali and Marathi next.

Co-founders, & CEO, CTO, COO, Arivihan

29, 29, 28

Darsan Guruvayurappan, Vasu Aggarwal

India’s young lawyers know the Suits grind all too well. In the US legal drama, lawyers were constantly spending long nights reviewing contracts and putting together diligence reports. Lucio, an enterprise legal AI startup founded by law school roommates Vasu Aggarwal and Darsan Guruvayurappan, is trying to change that. Built initially out of a hostel room in 2022, Lucio embeds into everyday tools like Word and PDFs, automating multi-step legal tasks while reducing hallucinations through verification and citations. The platform now has more than 250 clients globally and is expanding rapidly in the US. Backed by about $5 million so far, Lucio is seeking fresh capital to scale further.

Co-founders, Lucio

25, 26

Soham Ganatra

As companies rush to automate work, most artificial intelligence (AI) systems still behave like short-term contractors—usually efficient but also forgetful. Composio wants to turn them into something closer to seasoned employees. Founded in 2023 by Soham Ganatra, the company is building infrastructure that lets AI agents learn from mistakes, share that knowledge and steadily improve reliability in business-critical workflows. Backed by Lightspeed, Composio says its platform serves more than 200,000 developers and handles over 100 million tool calls a month. It’s raised $30 million and is betting that “memory” will be the missing layer in enterprise AI.

Co-founder, Composio

Yash Gupta

Yash Gupta’s Rikayaa Greentech uses a proprietary green 
process to refine tin from scrap to 99.9 percent purity,
 traditionally achieved only through tin ore and concentrate 
processing. Tin is a crucial metal used in the electronics and 
chemical sectors, and most of the tin consumed in India is 
imported. “The vision was to make India self-reliant in critical
 mineral recycling,” says Gupta. The 27-year-old is also working
 on extracting other metals such as copper and silver from scrap
 and building a clean-tech metals platform that produces metals
 meeting global purity and sustainability standards.

Founder & managing director, Rikayaa Greentech 

Jainul Abedin

Jainul Abedin, 25, CEO of Abyom SpaceTech and Defence, turned his childhood dream of exploring space into a business venture focussed on reusable rockets. He used his national fellowship to fund his initial research, identifying India’s lack of reusable launch technology as a critical, cost-prohibitive gap. This led to the founding of Abyom in 2020. The startup faces inherent challenges, particularly in securing funding. In 2022, they solved a major testing hurdle by pioneering a compact, 20-foot container test facility. This benchmark innovation is now being commercialised and has received government funding. Abedin has transitioned from a purely technical role to now focusing on fundraising and technology commercialisation, all while keeping his astronaut dream alive.

Founder & CEO, Abyom SpaceTech and Defence

Makarand Narkar

Makarand Narkar is co-founder of Mumbai-based Boomranng Studio, which provides design services like digital illustration, packaging, branding and identity design, and animation, along with multi-medium creative requirements to global brands. The studio’s biggest milestone has been its collaboration with Coldplay to create the visual identity for their Music of the Spheres Concert World Tour, India 2025, for which they won the Kyoorius Blue Elephant Award. From being the only Indians to create explainer animation videos for the 2024 Paralympics to creating the Google Doodle for India’s 79th Independence Day, global brands such as Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola have been on their roster of clients. Studio Boomrangg infuses Indian folklore into its stories crafted for global brands.

Co-founder, Boomranng Studio

Priya Dali

Priya Dali is the creative director at Gaysi Family, where she works at the intersection of design, storytelling and community-building. A graduate of Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, she joined Gaysi as an intern in 2017 and has since grown into a leadership role, helping shape the ​​platform into a multi-format queer media and cultural institution. Dali has co-led initiatives such as Queer Swipe Stories, Queer Made Weekend and Do You See Us?, and has worked with brands including Tinder and Godrej on long-running collaborations. She is also involved in children’s publishing and co-founded the queer-led creative studio Are You Serious? in 2023.

Creative director, Gaysi Family

number of categories this year

Aakriti Rawal

Inspired by her mother to bring handcrafted apparel to the younger generation, Aakriti Rawal set up her brand, House of Chikankari, on WhatsApp for business in 2020. The brand works with artisans around Lucknow to source authentic chikankari clothes. It has diversified its products to include new crafts including Kashmiri aarikari and others. Apart from ensuring a steady source of income for the artisans on its network, the brand also brings in standardisation in the unorganised market of handcrafted apparel. The company appeared in Shark Tank Season 2 and is backed by angel investors Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt Lifestyle, and Peyush Bansal, co-founder of Lenskart.

Founder, House of Chikankari

Pranav Midha

The neutraceuticals and supplements business has seen a boom as Indians are taking better care of their health. The key lies in taking the right supplements at the right time and this is where Miduty steps in. It started out as an educational content platform targeted towards better lifestyle choices, and then got into making its own supplements in 2020. Started by siblings Pranav Midha and Palak Midha in Jalandhar, Miduty offers free nutrition consult along with guidance on which supplements to take. The company has scaled to nearly Rs15 crore revenue run rate per month and has remained bootstrapped.

Founder & CEO, Miduty

Aneet Padda

Aneet Padda has shaped her journey from an introspective child to a promising young actor navigating the industry on her own. Early on, her mother encouraged her to express herself with poetry and performances by teaching how emotions are more important than technique. Without any formal training, she learnt acting on her own. Her breakthrough role in Saiyaara (2025) brought her attention, but most importantly, it gave her clarity and confidence. The 23-year-old, who will next be seen in Shaktishalini, is preparing to take on a wider range of roles in the future.

Actor

Lakshya

A rank outsider in the film industry, Lakshya is riding the popularity wave after the success of the 2025 Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood in which he plays the lead role. The actor began with television before making his big screen debut with Kill (2023). He is grateful for the accolades coming his way, but remains unfazed by the attention. “Quite a lot has changed, but at the same time, nothing much has changed,” he says. “It is a validation for me as an actor,” adds the 29-year-old, who will star in Chand Mera Dil, an intense love story in 2026. The artiste who enjoys playing different characters hopes to keep growing as an actor.

Abhay Verma

Born and raised in Panipat, Abhay Verma learnt acting not just on film sets but also by watching interviews, observing how actors spoke about fear, failure, ambition and patience. He began his career with advertisements, short films and brief roles in movies and web shows, before gaining recognition for his lead role in Munjya. With upcoming projects such as King and Safed Sagar, the momentum is clearly building for the artist. “If audiences recall my characters, that’s success for me,” he says.

number of new categories—D2C and Defence & Space

Ritwik Khanna

Ritwik Khanna, 26, is the creative director of Rkive City, a research and design house specialising in the revival of post-consumer textile waste. His 'garment-to-garment' methodology emphasises repair, reuse, and deconstruction to rebuild new silhouettes avoiding the use of heavy machinery. Prioritising these methods extends the lifespan of textiles and lowers resource intensity. Rkive City has successfully diverted over 30,000 garments from landfills, creating unique, high-value pieces. The brand gained recognition by winning the Circular Design Challenge in 2024 and showcasing its reconstructed designs at Milan Fashion Week.

Creative director, Rkive City

Mubassirah Khalid

Growing up in a family of Ajrakh printers, Mubassirah Khalid Khatri has shattered barriers as the first woman artisan in three generations to engage in the complex, traditionally male craft, by creatively blending traditional Ajrakh methods, combining freehand painting with block printing to produce distinctive designs. Honing her talents at Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV), acquiring knowledge in design, business, and modern marketing strategies, Khatri was awarded the Shri Gaurav Kilaru Sanmaan and launched her collection 'Anatomy' at Lakmé Fashion Week in 2025, asserting her presence in the slow fashion movement. Through her brand, Elysian, she wants to establish her own design identity and take it to the global level.

Artisan designer, Elysian

Rohith Reji

With Neokred Technologies, Rohith Reji has built, innovated and scaled up a digital public infrastructure stack which offers solutions to corporates such as banks, public sector organisations and NGOs in the onboarding of clients, building privacy and providing payment solutions. Its impact is being seen across sectors like BFSI, health care, gaming and ecommerce. The plan now is to replicate these and offer local solutions in international markets such as Singapore and Dubai.

Co-founder & CEO, Neokred Technologies

Pooja Malik

EquiTracers Wealth Advisors, with Founder Pooja Malik and Co-founder Sarita Jain, stands out among finance and fintech startups as an asset recovery firm that helps individuals and families recover their unclaimed investments. Operating in the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) space, they specialise in tracking forgotten bank deposits, equity shares, dividends and other financial assets, tracing rightful heirs, and ensuring the recovery process is smooth and transparent. EquiTracers has 100-plus clients, mostly high net worth individuals and non-resident Indians, and has earned Rs 50 lakh in FY25.

Founder & CEO, EquiTracers

Simona Mohan

A former political strategist, 28-year-old Simona Mohan is 
cofounder of Raho Hospitalities, which aims to standardise
 the fragmented homestay market. Starting with 50-plus rooms
 in Coorg organised in a 30-minute cluster, Raho manages,
 maintains and offers guests curated holiday experiences in a 
way that showcases and engages the local ecosystem.
For Rs 3,000 per night, a group can stay at a 3-bedroom 
cottage set in the Nilgiris and also have their food, shopping 
and taxis taken care of. Raho’s revenue model is asset-light, 
and the firm is focusing on scaling within the region before
 entering new markets.

Co-founder, Raho Hospitalities

The number of years Forbes India has built and announced the 30 Under 30 list; its most marquee list

Kanav Agarwal & Raghav Bansal 

Raghav Bansal and Kanav Agarwal are cofounders of Frostar: A farmer-first frozen food supply chain platform tackling agricultural inefficiency and food wastage in India. The company aims to offer preservative-free, farm-fresh vegetables frozen at their peak to minimise crop wastage and increase agricultural efficiency. They use Individual Quick Freezing technology, which preserves texture and quality. Operating on a contract farming model with over 120 farmers across north India, Frostar guarantees fair pricing and provides training, supported by an in-house team of agronomists. The company, which received Rs9 crore in government grants, reported Rs42 crore in revenue for FY25. Frostar has processed 20,000+ tonnes of produce and cut wastage by up to 9 percent.

Co-founders, Frostar

26, 28

Lakshay Sahni & Ramya Yellapragada

Founded in 2020 by Ramya Yellapragada and Lakshay Sahni, Marbles Health is a neurotechnology company focussed on expanding access to non-invasive brain care. Operating under Neuracle Health Private Limited, the company develops clinically licensed neuromodulation systems that complement medication and psychotherapy. Its flagship product, EASE, is India’s first medically licensed portable neuromodulation device, and is currently used in hospitals and supervised home care settings. Marbles Health works primarily with psychiatrists and hospitals, and is conducting parallel research in areas such as depression, anxiety and neurorehabilitation, with plans for broader clinical and regulatory expansion.

Co-founders, Marbles Health

28, 28

Khet Singh

Khet Singh is the co-founder of ClaimBuddy, a health care technology platform focussed on simplifying health insurance claims for patients and hospitals. He co-founded the company with Ajit Patel. An alumnus of Delhi University’s Khalsa College and IIM-Bangalore, Singh began his career in early-stage startups, including Urban Company and Pristyn Care, where he gained hands-on experience in health care operations. ClaimBuddy was founded during his second year at IIM-Bangalore, when Singh opted out of campus placements to pursue entrepreneurship full time. Today, the platform works with around 450 hospitals across India and processes thousands of insurance claims each month. 

Co-founder, ClaimBuddy

Yashraj Mehra

Yashraj Mehra’s journey is rooted in quiet determination and
 unwavering love for rap. While others found their place on 
playgrounds or in social circles in school, he found his in writing verses
 and sharing them online. This persistence led to his 2020 debut
 EP Azaad Hu Mein and a growing catalogue of tracks like 
Hausla, Dhundhala and Gabbar. Collaborations with leading 
artists, film projects, and a 2025 Grammy nomination have 
followed, but Mehra remains anchored in authenticity. For the
 25-year-old, hip-hop is about honesty, longevity and giving 
Indian voices a powerful, global platform.

Musician

Sanju Rathod

Sanju Rathod's rise into the Marathi pop music industry has
 not occurred overnight. He grew up in a Banjara community
 in the Dhanwad village of the Maharashtra where music 
quietly shaped him before a teenage heartbreak pushed him
 towards songwriting and rap in Marathi. He dropped out of 
engineering and struggled for many years in the Mumbai 
music industry until the viral success of his songs like Gulabi
 Sadi and Shaky, both of which have surpassed 500 million 
views. He intends to launch his first music album and tour 
India in 2026.

number of categories reintroduced— Advertising & Marketing

Shreeram Ravichandran, Gobinath P & Jawahar Rajasekar

In 2015, IIT-Madras trio Shreeram Ravichandran, Gobinath P and Jawahar Rajasekar realised during the catastrophic Chennai’s floods that disaster-hit families often had to wait for years for permanent homes. In 2018, they founded Modulus Housing to manufacture pre-fabricated, low-rise buildings assembled on-site like Lego pieces. Over time, they expanded into health centres, agri shelters and even modular hospitals during Covid. Modulus has since built 1,600+ structures across 22 states and African nation Malawi. It has a major presence in Meghalaya, and has executed projects for global institutions like the ADB, Gates Foundation etc in other states as well. Backed by Rs70 crore funding raised recently, they now aim to scale globally, and grow both commercial and social-impact verticals.

Co-founder & CEO; co-founder & COO; head of operations & founding team member, Modulus Housing

29, 29, 27

Girish Mehta & Anisha Sharma

Girish Mehta and Anisha Sharma are co-founders of CareLeavers Inner Circle Forum (CLiC), a peer-led platform—run by careleavers for careleavers. Having grown up in orphanages themselves, they have lived experience of the struggles faced and their social impact platform supports careleavers (children who leave care homes at 18 years) transition to independent life by streamlining processes to secure essential documents (voter card, Aadhaar etc), get government scheme support and access to self-help communities. Their helpline and platform were endorsed by Smriti Irani when she was the Minister of Child and Women Development. They have over 3,000 careleavers connected with CliC and have so far helped over 500 careleavers with documentation. 

Founder & director; co-founder & CEO, CLiC Forum

27, 27

Divya Deshmukh

At 20, Divya Deshmukh is one of the brightest stars in Indian chess. After winning two gold medals at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, her career-defining moment came in 2025 when she won the FIDE Women’s World Cup, beating some of the top players in the game. The victory also earned her the Grandmaster title, the highest achievement in the sport, making her only the fourth Indian woman to do so. Deshmukh is eyeing Candidates 2026, where eight of the most elite players will battle it out for the top slot that earns them the right to challenge World Champion Ju Wenjun. 

Chess player

Sheetal Devi

Sheetal Devi rose from a remote mountain village in Jammu and Kashmir to become one of India's most celebrated para-archers. Born without arms, the 18-year-old learned to navigate life independently using her feet long before she discovered the sport. A failed medical visit introduced her to a team who identified her natural balance and strength, pushing her towards archery. Devi, who never wanted to become an athlete, trained relentlessly and went on to become India's youngest Paralympic medallist at 17 and later a world champion. In December, she was ranked third in national able-bodied trials—a dream that she held for the longest.

Archer

Abhishek Sharma

In an international career that has spanned just over a year, opener Abhishek Sharma has established himself as one of the most destructive batters in world cricket. In 2025, he became ICC’s No 1 T20 batter—at his peak, he scored a record 931 points, the highest by any cricketer in the shortest format. He also smashed 100 sixes in a year, becoming the first Indian to do so in T20Is, and held the highest-ever career strike rate in the 20-over game. A defining phase of Sharma’s career came during the Covid shutdown, where he trained with Yuvraj Singh, learning the tricks of the trade from one of the most powerful hitters of his time. There has been no looking back since. 

Forbes India 30 Under 30 2026: Meet our young groundbreakers and trendsetters

Kajol Bheda

Founder, Scribbld

Moumita Basak

Artist

Vinay Gusain

Artist, printmaker

Ritesh Singh Chandel, Sonu Kumar Prashant, Rushabh Kothari

Co-founders, & CEO, CTO, COO, Arivihan

Darsan Guruvayurappan, Vasu Aggarwal

Co-founders, Lucio

Soham Ganatra

Co-founder, Composio

Yash Gupta

Founder & managing director, Rikayaa Greentech

Jainul Abedin

Founder & CEO, Abyom SpaceTech and Defence

Makarand Narkar

Co-founder, Boomranng Studio

Priya Dali

Creative director, Gaysi Family

Aakriti Rawal

Founder, House of Chikankari

Pranav Midha

Founder & CEO, Miduty

Aneet Padda

Actor

Lakshya

Actor

Abhay Verma

Actor

Ritwik Khanna

Creative director, Rkive City

Mubassirah Khalid

Artisan designer, Elysian

Rohith Reji

Co-founder & CEO, Neokred Technologies

Pooja Malik

Founder & CEO, EquiTracers

Simona Mohan

Co-founder, Raho Hospitalities

Kanav Agarwal & Raghav Bansal

Co-founders, Frostar

Lakshay Sahni & Ramya Yellapragada

Co-founders, Marbles Health

Khet Singh

Co-founder, ClaimBuddy

Yashraj Mehra

Musician

Sanju Rathod

Musician

Shreeram Ravichandran, Gobinath P & Jawahar Rajasekar

Co-founder & CEO; co-founder & COO; head of operations & founding team member, Modulus Housing

Girish Mehta & Anisha Sharma

Founder & director; co-founder & CEO, CLiC Forum

Divya Deshmukh

Chess player

Sheetal Devi

Archer

Abhishek Sharma

Cricketer

Popular Lists

AI List 2025

W-Power 2025

Forbes India 30 Under 30 2025