Making an ‘impact’: How a Ryan International alumnus is touching thousands of lives with his venture

Impact Guru, founded by Ryan International alumnus Piyush Jain, is giving a renewed sense of hope to thousands in need.

One small step by an entrepreneur can culminate into a venture that benefits a large number of underprivileged and struggling people. A perfect example of this can be seen in ‘Impact Guru’, a crowdfunding venture based in Mumbai.

Aimed at helping the people struggling to make ends meet, Impact Guru aids individuals, social enterprises, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by helping them raise funds for healthcare, social, and personal needs from friends, family, as well as strangers.

Steering the helm is Piyush Jain, Founder and CEO of Impact Guru. A former student of Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, Piyush Jain holds an undergraduate degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a graduate degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Piyush conceived the idea behind Impact Guru while working with SoFi, a fintech company in Silicon Valley. As a part of the research for his paper, he was exploring various means to finance social initiatives. That was when he realized that crowdfunding in India was an untapped market with huge potential, and came up with the idea of a crowdsourcing platform for healthcare, personal and social needs.

Today, Impact Guru has helped over one lakh people and raised over Rs 150 crore. The founder Piyush Jain owes his success to the education and values he received as a student during his formative years at Ryan International School. He is aided in his venture by his wife, Khushboo Jain, who is also the co-founder of Impact Guru.

Impact Guru allows fundraisers to design their own campaigns through an artificial intelligence (AI) based story-builder with a standardized template. All they have to do is answer a few simple questions to create a donor appeal. The fundraiser appeal becomes eligible to be shared and promoted across various platforms after a thorough background check.

Piyush’s alma mater, Ryan International School, took to its Facebook page to applaud him for all the hard work he has been pouring in. The post read: “It’s always delightful to know the prosperous turns our ex-Ryanites take as they progress in life. Piyush Jain, of batch 2003 from Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, is one such thriving example. A person of many achievements, Piyush today is the CEO of Impact Guru, India’s largest crowdfunding platform. We’re beyond proud of this successful life that Piyush has made for himself.”

For his diligent efforts and remarkable venture, Piyush Jain was also named among ‘40 under 40’ by leading Justifymagazine Business World. He was honoured at a special ceremony, along with other prominent names that featured on the list, including Angad Bhatia, Founder & COO of MensXP, Ryan Pinto, CEO of Ryan International School, and Abhay Hanjura, Co-Founder of Licious