Mr. Akshay Saxena is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of ‘Avanti Fellows’ – India’s largest not-for-profit initiative that was set up to increase the representation of low-income students in elite science and technology undergraduate courses, including the IITs. Mr. Saxena obtained his dual degree (B.Tech.+ M.Tech.) in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2006. He completed his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2010.

Mr. Saxena has spent the last 11 years building Avanti Fellows (www.avantifellows.org). Today, its programmes provide free after-school tutoring in Math and Science to over 25,000 students each year. This makes Avanti the largest after-school teaching programme for secondary school students in India, which is on par with some of the largest private ed-tech players – while being completely free of cost to students.

The majority of Avanti’s students are low-income girls in rural India. Over the past 11 years, Avanti’s work has helped over 1,250 low-income students qualify for the IIT JEE Main with over 100 securing a place at the IITs and over 250 securing seats at the NITs. Avanti has also helped over 500 students clear the NEET with over 50 students studying to become doctors at government MBBS colleges.

Avanti’s work began at IIT Bombay, first through the student mentorship program on campus (of which Mr. Saxena was a founding member) and then through student volunteer chapters that helped find and tutor gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Mr. Saxena has won many awards and accolades including the Ashoka Fellowship, the Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship, and the Echoing Green Fellowship.

Hobbies: “Cooking, Teaching.”