Meet the IIT Kanpur friends who made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list 2024

Forbes has released the ninth edition of the 30 Under 30 Asia list, and 86 Indians have grabbed the spot among 300 people. The list featured young entrepreneurs, leaders, and trailblazers across the Asia-Pacific region in 10 categories, including art, entertainment, sports, finance, and venture capital.

Amid them is a trio from IIT Kanpur who made it to the list. Pratyush Rai, Siddhartha Saxena and Sirsendu Sarkar, co-founders of Merlin, have made it to 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 high school at St. Kabir School in Ahmedabad and served as the Head Boy during the academic session 2012-13. He achieved a perfect 10 CGPA in Class 10. He continued his studies at The New Tulip International School and graduated from Class 12 with an impressive 94.2 per cent mark.

Following this, he successfully cleared the IIT JEE and gained admission to IIT Kanpur in 2015. He holds a BTech degree in civil engineering.

Rai Interned at National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in 2017 and at Axis Bank in Mumbai in 2018. He then worked with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as an Associate from 2019 to 2021 before co-founding Merlin.

Siddhartha Saxena: Co-founder of Merlin

Siddhartha Saxena, one of the co-founders of Merlin, is also an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. He holds a BTech degree in Computer Science. In 2017, Saxena worked as a research and development intern at Envestnet | Yodlee in Bengaluru and as a research intern at Wadhwani AI in Mumbai in 2019. He also worked as a researcher at Finland’s Aalto University in 2018.

Following this, he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at Jumio Corporation in 2019 in Montreal, Canada, before co-founding Merlin.

Sirsendu Sarkar: Co-founder of Merlin

Sirsendu Sarkar completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya. He secured a perfect score in Class 10 and 89.4 per cent in Class 12. In 2019, he cleared the IIT JEE and earned a seat in IIT Kanpur. He holds a degree in Materials Science and Engineering.

In 2017, he interned at Gurugram’s Applop Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd and interned as a Business Development Manager at GyanDhan in Delhi in 2018. Following this, he worked for over a year as a Business Analyst at Quantiphi in Bengaluru before co-founding Merlin.

Read| Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2024: Meet 86 Indians who made it to the coveted list

About Merlin

Merlin is a ChatGPT Chrome extension tool that was founded in 2002. It uses AI tools to help users create and consume content on the Internet for tasks such as writing emails or summarising websites. The company’s mobile application has over one lakh downloads. The startup is backed by investors, including Better Capital.