Forbes has unveiled the ninth edition of its 30 Under 30 Asia list, featuring 86 Indians among the 300 selected individuals. The list highlights young entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators from the Asia-Pacific region across 10 categories, including art, entertainment, sports, finance, and venture capital.
Among the honorees is a trio from IIT Kanpur: Pratyush Rai, Siddhartha Saxena, and Sirsendu Sarkar, co-founders of Merlin, who have been recognized in the 2024 list under Consumer Technology.
Pratyush Rai: Co-founder and CEO of Merlin
Pratyush Rai is the co-founder and CEO of Merlin. He completed his high school education at St. Kabir School in Ahmedabad, where he served as Head Boy during the 2012-13 academic session, achieving a perfect 10 CGPA in Class 10. He continued his studies at The New Tulip International School, graduating from Class 12 with an impressive 94.2 percent.
Afterward, he successfully cleared the IIT JEE and was admitted to IIT Kanpur in 2015, where he earned a BTech degree in civil engineering. Rai interned at National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in 2017 and Axis Bank in Mumbai in 2018. He later worked as an Associate at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) from 2019 to 2021 before co-founding Merlin.
Siddhartha Saxena: Co-founder of Merlin
Siddhartha Saxena, another co-founder of Merlin, also graduated from IIT Kanpur with a BTech degree in Computer Science. In 2017, Saxena interned in research and development at Envestnet | Yodlee in Bengaluru and as a research intern at Wadhwani AI in Mumbai in 2019. He also worked as a researcher at Aalto University in Finland in 2018. Following these experiences, he was employed as a Machine Learning Engineer at Jumio Corporation in Montreal, Canada, in 2019 before co-founding Merlin.
Sirsendu Sarkar: Co-founder of Merlin
Sirsendu Sarkar completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya, achieving a perfect score in Class 10 and 89.4 percent in Class 12. In 2019, he cleared the IIT JEE and earned a seat at IIT Kanpur, where he obtained a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. In 2017, he interned at Applop Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd in Gurugram and worked as a Business Development Manager intern at GyanDhan in Delhi in 2018. He then spent over a year as a Business Analyst at Quantiphi in Bengaluru before co-founding Merlin.
Merlin, founded in 2002, is a ChatGPT Chrome extension tool that leverages AI to assist users in creating and consuming online content, such as writing emails or summarizing websites. The company’s mobile application has over one lakh downloads and is supported by investors, including Better Capital.