&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Actor Vijay Sethupathi accused of exploitation and manipulation, consumer says ‘The sufferer was utilized by him and…’ – Firstpost")
From IIT to Ivy League: The place these 10 Indian-origin entrepreneurs behind billion greenback startups studied
Indian-origin entrepreneurs are on the forefront of world innovation, main the cost in AI, house tech, fintech, and social impression. Whereas a lot of the highlight is on their billion-dollar valuations and high-growth ventures, their educational beginnings typically inform a deeper story. From the corridors of IIT and MIT to activism-inspiring lecture rooms at Stanford, training has performed a crucial function in shaping how these leaders suppose, construct, and lead.This is a more in-depth have a look at the tutorial backgrounds that laid the muse for these 10 outstanding startup founders making international headlines in 2025:
Deepinder Goyal : Founder, LAT Aerospace and Zomato
Earlier than revolutionising meals supply with Zomato and now venturing into hybrid-electric aviation with LAT Aerospace, Deepinder Goyal was a math-loving engineering pupil with a pointy problem-solving mindset.Training:
- Undergrad: Indian
Institute of Expertise (IIT) Delhi – B.Tech in Arithmetic and Computing
Goyal’s time at IIT Delhi honed his analytical abilities and launched him to the facility of methods considering, which later translated into Zomato’s operational effectivity. As we speak, he’s reapplying that very same basis to innovate regional air mobility.
Balaji Srinivasan: Former co-founder, Counsyl
A serial entrepreneur and one of the vital influential thinkers in tech and crypto, Balaji is taking up his boldest imaginative and prescient but—constructing a brand new, decentralised society from scratch on a non-public island. His concepts about governance, networks, and sovereignty are rooted deeply in his educational coaching.Training:
- Undergrad & PhD: Stanford College – BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering
Balaji’s years at Stanford, the place he additionally taught, helped form his worldview round decentralisation, bioinformatics, and future-ready infrastructure. His doctoral analysis laid the groundwork for initiatives that mixed biology, computation, and methods design.
Bhavish Aggarwal: Co-founder, Ola & Ola Electrical
From reworking city mobility in India to accelerating the electrical car revolution, Bhavish Aggarwal has redefined how India strikes. With Ola, he constructed one of many nation’s first ride-hailing unicorns. Now, with Ola Electrical, he is betting massive on sustainable transportation — from e-scooters to battery innovation.Training:
- Undergrad: Indian Institute of Expertise (IIT) Bombay – B.Tech in Laptop Science
Aggarwal’s educational basis in laptop science at IIT Bombay geared up him with the technical abilities to scale advanced platforms. His campus expertise nurtured an entrepreneurial spirit that will ultimately result in Ola. As we speak, his twin give attention to digital infrastructure and inexperienced mobility locations him on the forefront of India’s climate-tech future.
Nikesh Arora : CEO, Palo Alto Networks (ex-Google, ex-SoftBank)
Nikesh Arora has constantly operated on the helm of a few of the world’s strongest tech firms. After high-impact roles at Google and SoftBank, he’s now main Palo Alto Networks — a world cybersecurity powerhouse — into its subsequent part of innovation and enterprise dominance. Recognized for his sharp strategic thoughts and deal-making potential, Arora blends tech fluency with monetary precision.Training:
- Undergrad: Institute of Expertise, Banaras Hindu College (now IIT-BHU) – B.Tech in Electrical Engineering
- Graduate: Northeastern College – MS in Finance
- MBA: Boston Faculty – MBA in Finance
This multidisciplinary training helped him drive multi-billion-dollar progress throughout tech, telecom, and now cybersecurity — proving the facility of cross-domain management.
Suchi Mukherjee : Founder & CEO, Limeroad
Mixing style, know-how, and person expertise, Suchi Mukherjee carved an area for Limeroad in India’s fiercely aggressive e-commerce panorama. A champion of accessible style for ladies, she reimagined on-line buying by way of curated seems, community-driven content material, and a clear, mobile-first platform. Training:
- Undergrad: College of Cambridge – BA in Economics
- Graduate: London Faculty of Economics (LSE) – MSc in Finance & Economics
These abilities helped her lead product and enterprise technique roles at eBay and Gumtree within the UK earlier than returning to India to launch Limeroad — a model now recognized for its innovation in social commerce and customer-first design.
Neha Narkhede: Co-founder, Confluent
A trailblazer on this planet of huge knowledge infrastructure, Neha Narkhede is the co-creator of Apache Kafka, the real-time knowledge streaming platform utilized by 1000’s of firms together with Netflix, Uber, and Goldman Sachs. After her time at LinkedIn, she co-founded Confluent, the corporate behind Kafka’s enterprise functions, which went public in a multibillion-dollar IPO. As we speak, she can be an lively investor, supporting the subsequent wave of founders in enterprise tech.Training:
- Undergrad: Pune Institute of Laptop Expertise – BE in Laptop Engineering
- Graduate: Georgia Institute of Expertise – MS in Laptop Science
Her journey underscores how rigorous engineering coaching, paired with a daring product imaginative and prescient, can remodel the way in which the world processes info.
Anand Kannappan: Co-founder, Patronus AI
As AI adoption skyrockets, Anand is among the minds making certain it stays accountable and safe. Patronus AI builds instruments to validate and take a look at generative AI fashions at scale.Training:
- Undergrad: College of Chicago – Bachelor’s diploma in Economics and Laptop Science
MIT gave Anand the possibility to work on real-world AI issues and cutting-edge analysis. His educational work laid the muse for a profession in AI security and infrastructure.
Arjun Desai : Co-founder, Cartesia
What if highly effective AI instruments might run with out the web? That’s what Arjun Desai and his crew at Cartesia are fixing. Their edge-AI methods have caught the eye of main VCs.Training:
- Undergrad: Stanford College – BS in Laptop Science
Arjun’s training skilled him in decentralised computing and useful resource optimisation—abilities essential to creating AI that works offline. He was additionally a part of Stanford’s vibrant AI and entrepreneurship communities.
Aman Sanger: Co-founder, Anysphere (Cursor)
Aman is making coding simpler and smarter with Cursor, an AI co-pilot utilized by 30,000+ builders. His imaginative and prescient is reshaping how software program is constructed.Training:
- Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Expertise – BS in Laptop Science
At MIT, Aman immersed himself in AI, pure language processing, and human-computer interplay. His expertise in analysis labs and startup incubators accelerated Cursor’s improvement from campus to firm.
Rahul Garg: Founder & CEO, Moglix
From B2B e-commerce to industrial provide chain transformation, Rahul’s Moglix has turn into one in all India’s most valued tech unicorns.Training:
- Undergrad: Indian Institute of Expertise (IIT) Kanpur – B.Tech
- MBA: Indian Faculty of Enterprise (ISB), Hyderabad
Rahul’s mix of engineering precision and enterprise acumen comes from his twin coaching at IIT and ISB. This combine helps him navigate advanced provide chains with strategic agility.These founders present that nice concepts don’t emerge in isolation. They’re typically formed, refined, and challenged in lecture halls, coding labs, and startup golf equipment. Whether or not it’s Stanford, IIT, Harvard, or ISB — training has been a robust catalyst behind their international success.
