The Indian School of Business (ISB) is highly regarded as a premier global, independent, management institution that grooms business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the only Indian institution to be featured in the Top 25 B-Schools of FT Global MBA Rankings 2021, thus proving its mettle in providing world-class management education. Over the course of time, ISB has nurtured entrepreneurial skills in a plethora of students, who have made a name for themselves through their innovative leadership and management.
In the first edition of the ISB Verve series, we share a few notable entrepreneurs who have created a niche for themselves in their industry verticals. From automobile, technology, finance to education, their diversity truly reflects the core strengths of ISB and the potential to nurture future business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Mayank Kumar, upGrad
Mayank Kumar is an ISB Alumni from the PGP Class of 2009 and co-founder of upGrad, a unicorn startup in the Ed-tech space. upGrad began in 2015 with the conviction that in an ever-changing industry, professionals need to continuously upskill themselves in order to stay relevant. Starting with the first program in Entrepreneurship, upGrad has created some of India’s largest online programmes to help thousands of professionals achieve their career goals in the areas of data technology and management.
With over 10 years of experience in education as an investor and advisor, Mayank focuses on the overall growth and strategy, team building and strategic partnerships at upGrad. The startup received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by Economic Times in 2018, Most Innovative Companies in India’ by Fast Company in 2017 and has made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ two years in a row (2018 and 2019) and 1st position in 2020.
Aakash Chaudhry, Aakash Institutes
Aakash Chaudhry is the Managing Director & Co-Promoter at Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). An ISB alumnus
from the PGP Class of 2004, he leads the senior management team and is responsible for the overall supervision and direction of the company.
Started in 1988, AESL offers coaching services for medical as well as engineering entrance exams and foundation level exams through distinct verticals namely, Aakash Medical, Aakash IIT-JEE & Aakash Foundations. With a pan-India network of 200+ Aakash Centres and more than 250,000 student Count, AESL is one the largest tutorial chain in India.
In 2021, Byju’s acquired AESL in a cash & stock deal estimated at $950 million. The buyout is among the largest acquisitions by an Indian startup — bigger than Snapdeal’s purchase of Freecharge for $400 million in 2015 & Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra for an estimated $330 million in 2014.
In 2018, Aakash Chaudhry was recognised as one of the disruptive leaders by Business World and was listed among the coveted “40 Under 40” young leaders list.
Piyush Shah, InMobi Group
Piyush Shah is the co-founder of InMobi Group. Founded in 2007, InMobi is the world’s leading Marketing Cloud, driving real connections between brands and consumers. The startup has been recognised as 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 Company and Fast Company’s 2018 Most Innovative Companies.
Piyush currently heads the vision, strategy, and execution of Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud services. Before taking up this role, he spearheaded the product team as the Chief Product Officer and lead the Performance Advertising business. Piyush was also instrumental in launching InMobi SmartPay, a mobile payment solution.
Married with two kids, Piyush graduated in Strategy and Marketing from ISB, Hyderabad in 2004 and was president of the ISB Alumni chapter.
Umang Kumar, CarDekho.com
Umang Kumar is an internet entrepreneur and co-founder & president of Cardekho.com. In a decade of experience across
internet startups & leading media houses, Umang started his career in media/sales strategy after graduating from ISB in 2006 and found his calling as a quintessential sales guy. The same blend is what came in handy while building up a multitude of online businesses including Cardekho.com.
His company has been revolutionising the personal mobility space since 2008 by integrating technology in the automotive sector. It has expanded to Southeast Asia with Zigwheels.ph, Zigwheels.my and Oto.com & UAE with Zigwheels.ae. With investors including Google Capital, Tybourne Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, Ratan Tata and Times Internet, the company is poised to scale up & succeed.
Rahul Garg, Moglix
After graduating summa cum laude from the PGP class of 2010, Rahul Garg worked with IAB and Google before founding his startup – Moglix. Started in the year 2015, Moglix is an Asia-based E-commerce company intensively inclined towards B2B procurement of industrial supplies, in particular, MRO, Safety, Electricals, Lighting, Cleaning & Housekeeping, Office Stationary & Supplies, Power Tools and many more industry essentials.
The company currently has a supply chain network of more than 16,000 suppliers across 35 warehouses and lists more than 500,000 stock-keeping units on its online marketplace. $120 million from investors at a valuation of $1 billion in 2021, Moglix entered the exclusive unicorn club in the startup ecosystem.
Harshvardhan Lunia, Lendingkart 
An ISB graduate from PGP Class of 2008, Harshvardhan Lunia is the Co-founder & CEO of Lendingkart. Founded in 2014, the startup aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, allowing them to focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows. Lendingkart has developed technology tools that facilitate lenders to evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness and provide them with other related services.
