Students walking down stairs inscribed 'Nothing is impossible to a willing heart'

One generation
changes everything.

Ending intergenerational poverty in a single generation — by getting low-income students, especially girls, into India's top STEM colleges and the careers they unlock.

Investor Brief · FY27

May 2026

India's top 5% college seats are the most reliable pathway out of intergenerational poverty.

~388,000 seats out of 7.75 M annual UG graduates (AISHE 2021-22, MoE).

Top 388,000 STEM

71%

placed

₹7.6 L

median salary

The other ~1,080,000 UG graduates

27%

placed

₹2.3 L

median salary

388,000 seats: IIT 16K · NIT + IIIT 30K · Govt Medical, MBBS + BDS 66K · Top Engg, JEE-elite 205K · Pharmacy 25K · Agriculture 35K · Architecture 12K.
Sources: NIRF 2025 · NMC 2024-25 · AISHE 2021-22 UG out-turn (7.75 M) · PLFS 2023-24 wages. Top Engg and the non-engineering tiers include a selective-pool expansion beyond NIRF actuals.

1 / 52

Low-income families represent 80% of India but hold only 10% of these seats.

Bottom 80%

households under ₹5 L / yr

0.38%

odds of a top STEM seat

Top 20%

households above ₹5 L / yr

13.5%

odds of a top STEM seat

Access gap

36×

between top-20% and bottom-80% odds

Coaching cost

₹2-10 L

over 2 years — unaffordable to bottom-80% households

2 / 52

Avanti identifies India's top 1% low-income students and places them into India's top STEM colleges.

7,497

top-tier STEM placements · 2013-2026

757

IIT

1,664

NIT / IIIT

393

Govt MBBS

4,683

Top Engg

3 / 52

Avanti works with some of the brightest and most disadvantaged students in India.

A JNV CoE classroom · 2026

Top 1% scorers in their school system. Selected via NCST → JEE / NEET-track.

49.5%

Girls in the 2026 cohort — at gender parity (944 of 1,906)

81.5%

SC + ST + OBC — historically marginalized communities

87%

Under ₹4 L / year household income

52%

First-generation learners — neither parent has a bachelor's degree

1,906 students currently in Grade 12 across all Avanti CoEs & Nodals, set to graduate in 2026. Source: Avanti.

4 / 52

How Avanti closes the gap.

1

Identify

Build the country's largest talent-identification effort

2

Demonstrate excellence

Primary impact driver

Avanti-run Centres of Excellence (CoEs)

3

Institutionalise test prep

Online learning portal, summer programs & state-run CoEs — across the state

5 / 52

We identify the top 1% students in partnership with the Government.

259,810

Actively learning online

students on Gurukul, our free test-prep portal (FY26)

8

Public school systems

Navodaya (NVS) · Punjab · Delhi · Himachal Pradesh · Uttarakhand · Chhattisgarh · Maharashtra · Gujarat

Avanti Centres

43

Centres of Excellence + Nodals running now

3,262

students enrolled in Class 11 (1,707) and Class 12 (1,555)

System-Led Replication

11,327

students with 2026 results in the state systems

The 2026 tracked JEE / NEET cohort outside the physical centres (total less Centres and Nodals).

Avanti students taking a JEE-pattern test in class — the state-scale assessment that surfaces top low-income talent into the selection funnel.

State-wide JEE-pattern mock · FY26

259,810 on Gurukul · the top flows into the two tracks at left.

6 / 52

CoEs are our core impact model.

Direct Delivery — Centres of Excellence

CoEs are government-run residential schools.
Once designated a CoE, an extra batch is added to Class 11 & 12, filled with top performers from across the region.
Avanti places 3–4 expert faculty to coach the batch — PCM for JEE, PCB for NEET.
Faculty teach six hours a day, plus two to three hours of doubt-solving.
Conversion to top-tier STEM colleges is the best in the country — 2–3× commercial coaching.

7 / 52

Avanti Centres of Excellence are India's most effective tutoring program — 2026 results.

397

Appearing for JEE

Class XII students who sat JEE 2026, across all Avanti Centres of Excellence.

409

Top-tier placements

incl. 153 IIT + 114 NIT / IIIT + 53 Govt MBBS / BDS + 89 Top Engg.

86.8%

Placement rate

vs 0.38% national baseline (bottom-80% odds) = ~228× lift.

Across 12 Centres of Excellence graduating a 2026 batch. Centres of Excellence only — Nodal centres, a lighter-touch first-contact model, convert at a very different rate and are excluded from this figure. JEE Advanced and NEET 2026 results included.

8 / 52

In the next 5 years, Avanti will help 6,700+ students place into India's top 5% colleges every year.

An Avanti student raising her hand in class — engaged, confident, the kind of low-income talent Avanti's state-partnership model identifies and develops into a top-5% college placement.

119

Centres

Network of Centres of Excellence + Nodals across India.

₹1.2 Cr

Per centre / yr

All-in annual cost per centre · 80 students, two-grade cohort.

₹23 Cr

For systems work

PMU teams embedded inside government school systems — state-wide reach.

₹14 Cr

For scholarships

Need-based grants to top low-income students through college.

₹175.5 Cr

Total budget

All-in FY32 annual programme envelope.

9 / 52

Leadership Team

Two co-CEOs anchor strategy, fundraising and product. Three senior leaders run technology, government partnerships and centre operations across Avanti's 43 centres.

Vandana Goyal

Co-CEO & Managing Trustee

Leads operations, fundraising & governance. Claremont McKenna + LSE. Former CEO of Akanksha Foundation — scaled 21 schools across Mumbai & Pune.

Akshay Saxena

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Leads product, research & technology. IIT Bombay; left a Harvard MBA to scale Avanti. Prior: BCG; founding team at Heartflow. Ashoka Fellow.

Pritam Sukumar

VP, Technology

Leads the LMS, Gurukul AI tutor, content pipeline & data infrastructure across all centres & PMUs. Prior: Amazon; ML research at UIUC.

Panchali Dutta

VP, Government Partnerships

Anchors state-system PMUs (TN, Punjab, Delhi, HP, UK, KA, GJ, CT). 10+ years scaling programs in India's govt education systems. Miranda House + DU.

Agny Ganesh

Sr. Director, Operations

Runs centre ops across JNVs & state CoEs — teaching delivery, training, NVS liaison & classroom quality. Prior: Piramal Fellow. Anna University B.E.

10 / 52

Awards and recognition

Avanti's work and team have been recognised across the social-entrepreneurship and education-philanthropy ecosystems.

Schwab Foundation / Jubilant Bhartia Social Entrepreneur of the Year · 2024
NorthEast CSR Award (Education) · 2024
India Audio Summit & Awards · 2025 (Yes She Can)
IIT Bombay Young Alumni Achiever Award · 2023
Tools Competition Winner · 2022-23 (Accelerating Learning track)
Ashoka Fellow · 2013
Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship · 2012
Echoing Green Fellow · 2012
Pan IIT Alumni Initiative · 2010 (founding recognition)

Schwab / Jubilant Bhartia Social Entrepreneur of the Year award ceremony

India Audio Summit and Awards — Yes She Can

11 / 52

In the press

Selected coverage from Indian and global outlets — featuring Avanti's centres, alumni and state-system partnerships.

CNBC TV18 — Akshay Saxena Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2024

CNBC TV18 · 2024 — Social Entrepreneur of the Year

SocialStory — Meet the IIT alumni enabling underprivileged students

YourStory · SocialStory — IIT alumni enabling underprivileged students

Business Standard — Infosys partners with social organizations

Business Standard — Infosys partners with social orgs (women empowerment)

The Tribune — Jalandhar hosts PACE camp for govt school students

The Tribune · 2026 — Jalandhar PACE camp (Punjab JEE / NEET)

Godrej Foundation Stories — Avanti's Centres of Excellence

Godrej Foundation — Avanti's CoEs opening horizons for gifted children

Delhi Education Directorate — Free coaching to be given to Delhi govt school students

India Today — Delhi govt NEET / JEE coaching launch

12 / 52

Backed by 58 corporate, foundation and individual partners.

Corporates co-fund product, scholarships and infrastructure; foundations and trusts back centre operations and state-system PMUs; individuals make multi-year personal commitments to specific programs.

Corporates

BCG

Branch Intl

Capgemini

Celeros

Citadel

Coursera

Delhivery

Envision Energy

Ernst and Young

Fidelity Intl

Fractal Analytics

Geltec

HDFC Credila

IMC Trading

Infosys

JPMorgan

Jubilant Bhartia Foundation

Micron

Motilal Oswal

MSDF

Munich RE

Nokia

Parle

Safari

SAP

SBI Foundation

TATA AIG

TATA Capital

TATA Motors

Tenneco

Thermax Foundation

Foundations & trusts

Agency Fund

Apollo Opportunity Foundation

CAF America

CINI

Douglas B Marshall Foundation

DRK Foundation

Echoing Green

Feeding India

Godrej Foundation

King Baudouin Foundation

MacArthur Foundation

Morgridge Family Foundation

Sar-La Education Trust

TATA Trusts

Veha Foundation (MKH)

Individuals

Amit Shahi

Ashank Desai

Nirav Shah

Paulomi Shah

Ranodeb Roy

Ruchi Sanke

Sharmistha Dubey

Sunil Vachani

TVG Krishnamurthy

Vani Venkatesh

Vinita Kumari

Vishal Tulsyan

Source: avantifellows.org partners page · AF India + AF USA audited financials (FY18-19 → FY24-25 itemised donor schedules; AF USA 2025 Note 15). Full historical donor list: financials/output/donors_lifetime.parquet (budget-projections). List is illustrative — Avanti gratefully acknowledges every supporter, including those not named on this slide.

13 / 52

One generationchanges everything.