Avanti Fellows
About
Avanti Fellows is a nonprofit organisation that provides free, high-quality academic support to students from low-income communities across India, helping them compete for seats in the country's top engineering and medical colleges. Founded in 2010 by alumni of IIT Bombay and other premier institutions, Avanti now works with over 300 staff across 12 large public school systems. It is co-led by Co-Founder Akshay Saxena, an Ashoka Fellow and Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2024), and Managing Trustee Vandana Goyal, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Only 1 in 40 low-income high school graduates in India makes it to a prestigious college. Avanti's work is built around closing that gap. Youtube Video >
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Sectors: Education, STEM, Youth Development, College Access
What They Do
Avanti runs three programme models across 12 public school systems in India, reaching students through different delivery formats depending on where they are and what they need.
Centres of Excellence
Avanti's most intensive programme places mission-driven teachers in residential and public schools across 39 centres, working with 2,591 students. Teachers live alongside their students in remote areas, providing more than 20 hours of tutoring, mentoring, and counselling every week. Many of Avanti's teachers come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds as their students, which shapes how they teach and support.
Online Live Classes
For students who cannot leave home to attend in-person sessions, Avanti runs 12-hour weekly live classes online in small batches. This programme currently serves 500 students across 4 states and one pan-India programme.
Self-Paced Online
All students enrolled in Avanti's partner school systems have access to video content, mock tests, and career information through a self-paced digital platform. This reaches 90,000 students across 5 states and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. Focus Areas
Avanti's academic support is primarily oriented toward JEE (engineering) and NEET (medical) entrance exams. Alongside academic preparation, the organisation supports students with college counselling, career guidance, scholarship access, and confidence building.
Impact
90% of students in Avanti's Centres of Excellence gain admission to top-tier STEM colleges. 78% of students earn seats at IITs and NITs. 50% of these students are young women. Alumni include an IAS officer who ranked 82 in the Civil Services exam, a MIT scholar who went on to found a YCombinator startup, and a RISE Global Winner who received over $500,000 in support for a healthcare venture.
Avanti Fellows is a good fit for people with backgrounds in teaching, mentoring, education programme management, technology, or communications who want to work directly with students from underserved communities in some of India's most remote and underserved regions.