6 Indian-Origin AI Founders Dominated Forbes 30 Under 30 2026 List: Here's Who They Are

The artificial intelligence (AI) space has skyrocketed in the last two-three years, so much so that Forbes took notice and created a separate category for it. The annual list for 30 under 30 is out, and the AI category profiles some promising Indian-origin AI startup founders that are reshaping the technological frontier.

Here's a lowdown on all the Indian-origin founders that made it to the 2026 Forbes 30 under 30 list.

1. Samir Dutta and Kunal Tangri: Cofounders, Farsight

MIT computer science alumni who, together with co-founder Noah Faro, are crafting a tool capable of whipping up sophisticated Excel models, pitch decks, and research briefs in the precise formats favoured by finance houses - all in mere seconds. The venture has already secured commitments from about 30 financial outfits, mainly investment banks and private equity entities.

2. Adit Abraham and Raunak Chowdhuri: Cofounders, Reducto

Graduates who drew inspiration from a famed Harry Potter incantation to christen their venture, which breaks down and deciphers the troves of data lurking in unstructured paperwork. Reducto has sifted through more than 250 million pages to date, serving firms such as Vanta and Airtable. The AI outfit has amassed over $100 million in investment and was most recently pegged at a $600 million valuation in October.

3. Finsam Samson: Cofounder, Accordance

Partnered with ex-Stanford peer David Yue to launch Accordance in 2024. The firm is pioneering an AI framework adept at tackling intricate tax and accounting conundrums that stump conventional software. It has pulled in more than $13 million in seed capital from heavyweights like Ventures, General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Anthropic.

4. Advith Chelikani: Cofounder, Pylon

Teamed up with Robert Eng and Marty Kausas to establish Pylon, which aids B2B squads in tracking and resolving client concerns spanning Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, in-app messaging, ticket portals, and community forums. The enterprise boasts over 750 B2B patrons, including ElevenLabs, Together.ai, and Linear.

5. Nikhil Gupta: Cofounder, Vapi

Launched Vapi with Jordan Dearsley, originally envisioning an AI counsellor before shifting gears to equip developers with kits for crafting and rolling out voice-driven AI agents that engage in fluid, human-like dialogues with minimal delay.

6. Karun Kaushik: Cofounder, Delve

Sparked Delve from an MIT dormitory alongside Selin Kocalar, starting with a medical transcription tool before veering towards streamlining compliance workflows. Leveraging AI, it eases the path to security benchmarks such as SOC 2 and HIPAA. Delve now counts over 500 enterprises as clients, among them the AI coding platform Lovable, and lately sealed a $32 million round spearheaded by Insight Partners, hitting a $300 million valuation.