2022 Social Entrepreneurs List
The objective of Indiaspora’s DiasporaNEXT Social Entrepreneurship List is to identify and recognize top young social entrepreneurs of Indian origin from all over the world who are approximately between ages 21-40.
About
This list, which spotlights young Indian-origin social entrepreneurs from around the world, demonstrates ways in which for-profit enterprises can contribute heavily to society.
Indiaspora is a nonprofit community of powerful global Indian leaders from diverse backgrounds and professions who are committed to inspiring the diaspora to be a force for good by providing a platform to collaborate, engage, and catalyze social change.
Methodology
The objective of Indiaspora’s DiasporaNEXT Social Entrepreneurship List is to identify and recognise top young social entrepreneurs of Indian origin from all over the world who are approximately between ages 21-40.
We recognize that this is not an exhaustive list of impactful social entrepreneurs. This list is not intended to be a ranking of these entrepreneurs’ success, but rather a celebration of their work and the impact it has.
In order to cover all geographies, Indiaspora recruited a jury composed of eminent leaders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem from all over the world. While we strive to make this list as comprehensive and accurate as possible, there are several challenges around access to information, defining what social entrepreneurship should (and should not) include, etc. that makes this process subjective. We have included in this list “Individuals who are leading for-profit companies with missions to promote equity and address social issues through their products, services, and business practices.”
The role of the jury is to provide overall guidance and perspective on Indiaspora’s methodology and approach and recommend names of leading social entrepreneurs from their geographies that should be included on the list. The jury is more of an advisory committee and sounding board and is not ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the DiasporaNEXT Social Entrepreneurship List.
Shoegaro Fashions Private Limited
Hifza Afaq
Hifza Afaq is an entrepreneur and an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in computer software and physics with a Doctor of Philosophy – PhD focused in Computer Science.
Kaarigar Mandi, developed at Shoegaro Fashions Private Limited, is a Global B2B platform for the Footwear Supply chain.
It is a platform to connect bulk footwear buyers with the footwear artisans across India and provide them 360-degree support to help sustain their businesses.
ReHive
Vedita Agarwal and Nishit Shukla
Vedita Agarwal and Nishit Shukla are the co-founders of ReHive, an an investment platform for climate startups that are solving the most urgent climate issues of today. ReHive enables flows of capital from angel investors to curated climate startups to accelerate climate positive impact in India.
Nishit is among the fifth cohort of Obama Foundation Scholars, the Chicago-based nonprofit announced on Aug 30. He is among 30 emerging leaders from around the world who will study at either Columbia University or the University of Chicago for the 2022-2023 academic year. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.
Sampurn(e)arth
Debartha Banerjee and Ritvik Rao and Jayanth N
Sampurn(e)arth is a social enterprise working towards breaking the non-cyclic process of waste management, which currently involves extraction, production, consumption and dumping or landfilling resulting in greenhouse gas emissions, ground water pollution and an ever-increasing strain on natural resources.
Debartha is a techie by education and a social entrepreneur by heart. He has a B.Tech in Engineering from West Bengal University of Technology and completed his Master’s degree in Social Entrepreneurship from the reputed Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS). He was listed in the prestigious “Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs from Asia” in the year 2017. Debartha has hands on experience in IT and Business Development and is looking after Business Development, Client relations, Account management. Ritvik completed his Master’s degree in Social Entrepreneurship from reputed Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS). Ritvik heads marketing and branding in Sampurnearth.
Jayant completed his B.TECH in Electronics & Communications from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka and completed his Master’s degree in Social Entrepreneurship from reputed Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS). Jayant had hands on experience in research and operation is heading Finance, HR, backend Operations in Sampurnearth
Kosh
Sahil Bansal and Aayush Goel
Sahil Bansal and Aayush Goel are the co-founders of Kosh, a group loan app in India.
Aayush Goel is a serial entrepreneur who brings deep expertise in building enterprise-level software systems from his years of experience. Sahil Bansal leads the sales and operations at Kosh, and created the groundwork for a robust and reliable financial platform.
Pani Energy
Devesh Bharadwaj
Devesh Bharadwaj is an engineer and the CEO of Pani, a company that is accelerating humanity’s transition to sustainable water with data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Pani works with industrial and city-scale water facilities to reduce their costs and greenhouse-gas emissions. This is effectively turning one of the largest and oldest sectors, water, on its head– bringing AI and decarbonizing the water.
WHRRL
Abhishek Bhattacharya
Abhishek is a Co-founder at Whrrl and was a Product Owner for the service product at Policybazaar.com (an Indian unicorn insurance aggregator). A 3x Entrepreneur and a 2x Author, he has been in Blockchain for about 4.5 years. At Whrrl, he’s building India’s first Agri-Fintech Blockchain platform that can save 25-40% of farmers’ income, and protect banks from millions in very regular frauds in the segment of Warehouse Receipt Finance. This integrated mega-platform is currently deployed across 5 states in India. Whrrl has been incubated at IIM Ahmedabad, University of Toronto’s CDL, Chiratae Innovators’ Program, TheGAIN in collaboration with MeiTy, GUSEC et. al. Whrrl has constantly received recognition in Centralized and Decentralized Finance from the likes of FICCI, Indian Banks Association, Binance, ETHDenver etc.
Abhishek has been an Advisor to several startups such as eSports.com (who raised 5.8 Million EUR in their ICO), Vayla, Blockchain Advisory Council, NafCoin et. al. His second book (Secure Chains: Cybersecurity and Blockchain-powered Automation) has been published by BPB Publications – Asia’s Largest Publisher of IT Books, and two books by Springer and Taylor & Francis are coming up in 2021. He is a regular speaker in blockchain and has given 2-day workshops in universities, in an attempt to show students the importance of choosing blockchain as a career path. Apart from that, he has taken lectures in blockchain for 7,000+ faculty, PhDs, and students worldwide. He’s an Educator with ODEM, and a visiting faculty with Amity’s Post Graduate Program in Blockchain Technology and Management. He has also advised the Certified Blockchain Professional (CBP) Course by EC-Council that’s present across 145 countries. Lastly, he was nominated for the “Top 50 Tech Leaders” award by InterCon Dubai. He had been invited as a Speaker at one of Europe’s biggest Blockchain conferences – Decentralized 2019 in Athens, Greece; as a Speaker at The Blockchain World Forum in Shenzhen, China; and as a Panellist/Speaker with a nomination for Best Crypto Educator in GURUS Awards by Next Block Asia 2.0 in Bangkok, Thailand last year; as a panellist/judge at Govt. of India’s program for startups at IIM Kashipur; and, as a Speaker at the European Digital Week and Global Technology Summit, 2020. He recently delivered talks at SmartCon ’22 in New York, DEVCON in Bogota, cNFTCon ’22 in Vegas, and CITC Conference by Ministry of Communication and IT in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Whrrl is a blockchain-based agri-lending business that helps small farmers, traders and producers access working capital by collateralizing products in warehouses. The platform is used in over 1,400 warehouses in five states in India. Whrrl has over $600 million commodities tokenized on the blockchain and over $6 million of digital loans issued to farmers and agri-businesses, creating an impact in the lives of more than 18,000 smallholder and marginal farmers.
Perfect Day
Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya
Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya have created a unique niche in the booming market for animal-free dairy alternatives.
Their company, Perfect Day, uses a fermentation process to create the key proteins that give bovine milk its functionality, versatility, and nutrition, in a process that they say puts a lot less stress on the environment. While fermentation has been used to create small amounts of specific enzymes and other food ingredients, Perfect Day is a pioneer in using the process to create dairy proteins.
Field Energy
Amit Gudka
Amit is an entrepreneur on a mission to make the transition to renewable energy happen.
He’s founded Field to finance, build and operate the renewable infrastructure needed to reach net zero and avoid climate catastrophe – starting with battery storage.
Before Field, Amit co-founded a green energy supplier making it easy for people to get green energy in their homes. Prior to that he spent 8 years trading electricity and gas at Barclays.
Bluebird Climate
Anisha Gupta
Anisha Gupta aims to to decarbonize the consumer products industry through her climate tech company Bluebird Climate. Bluebird is building a software that is helping brands tackle the 95% of company emissions that live within their products and supply chains, and allows them to minimize the impact of their operations on the planet.
Anisha Gupta previously worked at Unilever, has led her company to roll out its products to Glossier and other beauty and apparel brands.
Bicycle Health
Ankit Gupta
Ankit Gupta, MS, is the Founder and CEO of Bicycle Health. He is passionate about the power of technology to create patient-centered experiences that can deliver high quality outcomes at scale.
Bicycle Health is a digital clinic to help people free themselves from Opioid Dependence. Ankit was recently featured in Fortune’s 2022 40 Under 40 List.
Baeru Environmental Services
Divya Hedge
Divya Hegde is the founder of Baeru Environmental Services an organization that empowers women in the community to take proactive climate action measures by generating employment and offering them access to training programs in waste management, and product development. A Google alumna and graduate of Northwestern University, Divya is an entrepreneur interweaving design, technology and social impact.
As a three time UN Woman Leadership Awardee in gender equality, Divya’s key areas of focus are: Climate Action, Gender Equality and Health Tech. In 2022, her climate project was recognized as one of the Top 100 UNESCO Green citizens projects globally, by UNESCO.
Divya’s latest venture is Reality Check a gender equality game hat has been recognized by UN Women with a leadership award. The goal is to sensitize children about gender equality and challenge fixed gender bias role from early childhood.
PadCare Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Aasawari Kane
Aasawari is a passionate researcher with a vision to contribute to a more sustainable world.
PadCare is Pune based startup, an unprecedented hygiene management solution that completes the loop of the menstrual hygiene economy by generating harmless, recyclable output out of soiled pads.
“We are a team of young engineers set out on a journey to bring about positive and significant changes in the sanitary waste disposal system with a broader vision of safeguarding our women, our waste-pickers, and Mother Earth.”
KinderPass
Sumedha Khoche and Shireen Sultana
Sumedha Khoche and Shireen Sultana are two mothers who founded KinderPass, which offers activities for children based on their age and development needs.
As working mothers, both Sumedha and Shireen had faced similar challenges in childcare, and decided to come together to solve this issue through KinderPass, an at-home learning platform.
The app offers hundreds of learning activities in an online classroom-like setting with a full curriculum, and allows caregivers to keep track of the children’s progress.
Neolight
Vivek Kopparthi
Vivek Kopparthi is an empathy-driven entrepreneur focused on advancing innovations/solving problems that are life-changing.
He founded NeoLight, a medical device company focused on advancing empathy-driven best-in-class solutions for the neonatal and fetal markets. Today, NeoLight has markets over 90+ countries, holds 9 patents (11+ pending) and has raised $20M+ capital from strategic investors including and beyond Dignity Health, Arizona State, Catholic Health and Honor Health.
NirogStreet
Ram Kumar
Ram N Kumar is a passionate entrepreneur who is committed to creating equitable and affordable healthcare for all. He is the Founder and CEO of NirogStreet which is today India’s largest community and commerce platform for Ayurveda doctors.
Having grown up in a village that had no electricity and no healthcare access, he started NirogStreet to promote the benefits of Ayurveda globally by helping digitize the market.
EF Polymer Private Limited
Narayan Lal Gurjar
Narayan Lal Gurjar is the Founder of EF Polymer Private Limited.
He founded EF Polymer Private Limited out of a pure passion to help farmers across the world struggling with huge water and fertilizer requirement.
Since opening in 2018, they have successfully developed, tested, and piloted 100% Organic Super Absorbent Polymer.
Solinas Integrity Private Limited
Bhavesh Narayani
Bhavesh Narayani is a Co-Founder, Director and Head of Product Development at Solinas Integrity, a company that creates robotic solutions for pipeline diagnostics and septic tank cleaning to reduce water losses and eliminate manual scavenging. Bavesh’s work has been supported by five Indian patents, one Elsevier journal, and one peer-reviewed international conference on advances in robotics.
His product development journey began in 2019, when he started leading the technical development of the product HomoSEP from the ground, preparing it for market use in cleaning septic tanks to reduce manual intervention. He has successfully strategized and channeled the mass production of HomoSEP robots to meet demand by grouping a strong design, R&D, manufacturing, and operations team. Today, he is leading a team of 20+ people to create world-class deep-tech solutions for eliminating manual scavenging in the sanitation sector.
His work has been featured in times techies, your story tech30, Economic Times’ best on-campus award, the better India, Times of India and many more. He hold a master’s degree in machine design specialization from IIT Madras and a bachelor’s degree in automobile engineering, along with prior experience with the Transport Corporation of India.
ReCircle
Rahul Nainani
Rahul is currently the Co-founder & CEO of ReCircle (formerly RaddiConnect) which was founded in Aug 2015.
ReCircle is a resource recovery enterprise working towards a sustainable future.
Their aim is to build an inclusive, ethical, and circular ecosystem, by means of organised employment for waste workers within the informal economy.
ASE Group
Taj Pabari
Taj Pabari is one of Australia’s youngest and most successful social entrepreneurs. He is the Chief Executive Officer of The ASE Group – a community-led and purpose driven social enterprise that delivers education, entrepreneurship and employment programs to young people aged 5 to 24 years. ASE has partnered with Government, the Private Sector and Educational Institutions to deliver real and authentic entrepreneurial education for more than 100,000 young people.
Taj was named The Australian Young Innovator of the Year for 2014, an award given to Australia’s most exciting innovator and emerging talent. In 2017, Taj was awarded Young Australian of the Year for Queensland. He is the youngest recipient of the award since its formation in 1979.
Taj has presented to the Former US Vice President, Al Gore in Brisbane, joked with Hollywood Tycoon, Will Smith in Hong Kong and sipped tea with the Prime Minister of Australia in Canberra. His story has been featured by Sunrise, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, National Geographic, ABC, Nickelodeon and CNBC.
Agri Vijay
Vimal Panjwani
Vimal Panjwani is the co-founder and CEO of AgriVijay, an offline & online curated platform for farmers that provides renewable energy products & services along with new technological innovations in the Agritech space that promises either increase in the ‘yield’ or ‘savings’. It reduces the expenditure and dependency on ‘fossil fuels such as diesel, firewood etc for the farmers. Vimal aims to empower farmers with renewable energy, making them energy independent.