Meet the student-preneurs who have the next big ideas

The smartphone generation has dived straight into the start-up revolution in the country, with an unbound courage to create something different. Still in their teens, these student-preneurs have turned raw ideas into business models that also have a positive bearing on society. Some protect the environment, while others serve the underprivileged.

Anubhav Wadhwa

He was still in Class VIII at Pathways World School, Aravalis, in 2015, when Anubhav founded Tyrelessly, a firm that collects and recycles old tyres. Two years hence, this 17-year-old has reached out to over 100 communities in the country. Currently, he is working on a more sustainable model to provide products made of recycled tyres, like construction blocks and adhesives, to civic bodies.

His innovation has earned him an invitation to the UN High-level Political Forum in New York next month. Anubhav, son of investment banker Rajneesh, plans to transform Tyrelessly into an umbrella firm that will incorporate environmental considerations into engineering designs, to make various products.

Arjun Sawhney and Jessy Jindal

The duo drew their inspiration from a motivational speaker at their school, The Shri Ram School, Aravalis, to launch FeedOn in 2016. It sources food from online and offline food and beverage companies and feeds the poor for free. For, both Arjun (17) and Jessy (18) believe, quality food is a basic need and not a luxury.

FeedOn today has a committed volunteer base of 100 students across NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. With the help of 25 restaurants and food-tech partners, who also fund the initiative, the startup is serving thousands of families every month. The two Class XII students have also launched a pilot programme — Daily Meals, Daily Impact — to provide meals to students at a Gurgaon-based NGO. “If it succeeds, we will expand this no-profit model across the country,” said Arjun. Arjun’s father Rajesh Sawhney is co-founder of InnerChef and Jessy’s father Vishal Jindal runs Biryani By Kilo.

Yuvraj & Yashraj Bhardwaj

While in Class VIII, in 2013, the twin brothers had invented a purifier under research start-up Zenith Viper, which used pumpkin to extract heavy metals from water. Later, they invented another purifier using barley and got it patented.

The 17-year-olds have also launched Incuspaze, which currently owns four co-working spaces in Gurgaon, Lucknow, Indore and Ahmedabad. Sons of national-level swimmer Rajesh, the twins, who passed out of Class XII this year, have also started an artificial intelligence incubation programme in Gurgaon, in partnership with a London-based entrepreneur.

Sahil Arora

Following in the footsteps of his entrepreneur mother Saniya Arora, Sahil dropped out of school in 2016 to concentrate on his venture Vezulaa — a technology company that built an app to scan irises with the help of phone cameras. A number of smartphone makers have incorporated the app, patented in his name, in their phones.

Sahil, now 17, has started an in-cab digital marketing company, Tabverts, which earns revenues through advertisements in app-based cabs like Uber and Ola.

However, his biggest venture, Cabbie, an app-based cab service, came earlier this year. It was launched in Delhi and Bengaluru with 25,000 cabs. He now plans to launch his own fleet of 100 high-end cars, which will come with various entertainment options.