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Influential Leaders

Ashutosh Burnwal

Founder and CEO, Buddy4Study
Recognition Year(s): 2025
Area of Impact: Community or Social Impact
School: Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
Location: India

Summary

Driven by his own struggles with finances during his educational journey, Ashutosh Burnwal founded Buddy4Study, an Indian private scholarship management platform, in 2011. Buddy4Study now includes a scholar mentoring program and Kind Circle, a novel portal that empowers individuals to establish scholarship programs. After nearly 10 years at the helm of Buddy4Study, Burnwal transitioned to mentoring budding entrepreneurs and advising student startups through the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog for the government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission.

Entrepreneurial Impact

Burnwal’s leadership at Buddy4Study demonstrates a consistent entrepreneurial approach to addressing education funding challenges, bridging gaps in scholarship access, and creating new business and societal value. His initiatives have not only tackled immediate financial challenges for students but also created broader opportunities, thus preparing a more equipped generation of learners.

Over 13 years, Burnwal has led Buddy4Study to become an educational innovator and business creator. Founded in 2011 while Burnwal was earning his MBA from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad, this entrepreneurial venture began as a modest initiative to democratize scholarship information across various channels, both online and offline.

Buddy4Study has since blossomed into a successful scholarship platform. It has influenced over 8 million students and supported more than 102,000 scholars throughout India—18 percent of whom are orphans or children of single parents, 55 percent are female, and 83 percent are first-generation college graduates. Further, Buddy4Study has reduced scholarship management costs to less than 10 of the overall scholarship fund, and it has formed partnerships with over 3,500 media outlets to increase scholarship visibility.

From 2011 to 2013, a period vital for defining the platform’s mission and direction, Burnwal developed India’s first scholarship aggregator platform, connecting scholarship providers with scholarship seekers. It generated awareness about all available scholarships for students and rapidly attracted 50,000 student registrations.

In the following two years, Burnwal found new ways to grow Buddy4Study. Launching the first scholarship mobile app and a guidebook doubled the user base to 100,000. Burnwal’s entrepreneurial venture earned a spot on the National Association of Software and Services Companies (nasscom) Emerge 50 list of the top 50 most innovative IT companies, further enhancing student access to scholarship information. Burnwal also partnered with 15 media outlets to provide scholarship alerts in additional languages and regional dialects, which aided students not fluent in English.

The platform’s scholarship management services expanded from 2016 to 2017 through collaborations with large, well-known organizations like L’Oréal India and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Burnwal created the nonprofit Buddy4Study India Foundation to manage scholarship grants during this phase.

From 2018 to 2020, introduction of the Scholarship cum Admission System for universities and a scholar mentoring program increased daily visitors to 50,000, simplified the application process, and bolstered scholar support.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Buddy4Study partnered with 100 new scholarship providers and managed 15 million USD in funds to aid students impacted by the pandemic. Burnwal’s platform added 30,000 scholars, supported 12,000 COVID-affected students, won multiple corporate social responsibility awards, and increased its media outreach to over 1,500 partners. This expansion of Buddy4Study further created a positive impact in the lives of students and their families.

In 2023, the company focused on making technological enhancements to improve services, integrating education loan partners, and providing scholarships to approximately 50,000 students.

In the following year, Buddy4Study launched Kind Circle, an innovative philanthropy platform that enables individuals or groups to establish scholarship programs for deserving students. The organization reached a milestone of supporting over 100,000 unique scholars and expanded its funding solutions to assist underprivileged students studying in India and abroad.

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