Hyderabad: Two young entrepreneurs from Telugu-speaking states have made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026 list, earning recognition for their work in financial literacy and rural education technology, respectively.
Teaching children about money through comics
Shiva Ganesh Gaddam, founder of Zeni5, has been named in the Finance and Venture Capital category for his initiative to teach financial literacy to children through comics. The platform simplifies concepts such as saving, budgeting, investing, insurance and entrepreneurship, making them accessible to young learners from the primary level upward.
Gaddam built Zeni5 on the premise that money management in the digital age must be introduced early, and that engaging formats like comics can bridge the gap between complex financial ideas and a young audience that has historically been excluded from such conversations.
From a village in West Godavari to a lab on wheels
Madhulash Babu Krovvidi, founder of Edodwaja Foundation, has been named in the social impact category. His story begins in Shrungavriksham village in Palakoderu mandal of West Godavari district, where he grew up in a truck driver’s household and studied in government schools before pursuing a B.Tech in Electronics at a private college in Hyderabad. When he found that his college lacked functional laboratories, an idea took shape. “I didn’t want other students to suffer as I did,” he has said.
That idea became the Futuristic Lab on Wheels, or FLOW Bus, described as India’s first AI-powered mobile laboratory. The solar-powered bus carries equipment for hands-on learning in fields including robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT, cybersecurity, 3D printing and augmented and virtual reality, along with a mini planetarium and drone operation kits. The FLOW Bus was launched by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and has since reached over 60,000 students in rural areas across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Edodwaja received seed funding of Rs 25 lakh through the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme via the Technology Business Incubation Centre at Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam in Tirupati, and an additional investment of Rs 80 lakh from George Mason University in the United States.
The Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list recognises 300 young innovators and entrepreneurs across ten categories each year.
