Manik Gupta and Pradeep Kumar, Army Institute of Law, Mohali
Manik Gupta and Pradeep Kumar started Lawin1 in their third year of law school to learn some basic legal drafting by doing real-life projects for clients.
“We were bored of college life and wanted to learn something beyond just theory,” says Manik.
Lawin1 was launched in September 2014 as an online platform delivering legal services. By the end of 2016, they had more than 600 clients, ranging from traditional manufacturing houses to well-funded ventures. The company registered 20 percent annual growth.
Rahul Gopal, Hiten Patel and Perceus Mody, and German student Katja Walter, Mississippi State University
The four young founders debuted CampusKnot in 2013, and spent two years refining their project. The site is a free online educational hub for managing classes and student organizations, tracking attendance and assignments, and hosting academic events. It also offers a marketplace for textbooks.
In 2015, CampusKnot received US$100,000 from a private investor.
Shivank Garg, IIT Kanpur, and Shivam S. Garg, MAIT, Delhi
The Garg brothers are not your usual tech entrepreneurs. In 2016, they made their first Rs INR 1 crore (about US$150,000) selling naturally ripened mangoes – a rare occurrence in the market.
98 percent of the market’s mangoes are ripened through adulterated methods with carcinogenic chemicals. Alarmed by this information, the brothers have now turned their focus to social entrepreneurship and advocacy, educating the government and raising awareness among the public.
Abhinav Kukreja, Anish Prabhu and Aryaman Dalmia, UC Berkeley, USA
Inspired by Israel’s international successes in entrepreneurship, the young trio wanted to help India’s startups do the same.
In May 2016, they launched Moonshot, a company dedicated to connecting startups in India with resources from Silicon Valley, providing mentorship and funding for these new organizations. Understanding the potential India’s market has to go global, their aim is to connect startups in India with interns, mentors, and investors.
In fall 2016, Moonshot selected six startups to work with and is working with four to five startups for their Spring 2017 intake.