IIT Guwahati Honours Two Alumni Who Took Indian Tech to the World

Jaspreet Singh, a founder who started a bootstrapped company during a global financial crisis and built it into a SaaS unicorn, and Himanshu Upreti, an AI entrepreneur who built for 27 markets before 30. IIT Guwahati's Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate two exceptional journeys.

Published 12 April 2026 | Category Awards | Office Alumni, Corporate and International Relations

Mr Jaspreet Singh (CSE, Class of 2004), Co-Founder and CEO of Druva

IIT Guwahati is proud to confer the Distinguished Alumni Award 2025 upon Mr Jaspreet Singh (CSE, Class of 2004), Co-Founder and CEO of Druva.

Beginning his entrepreneurial journey in 2008 during a global financial crisis and with limited access to funding, Mr Singh bootstrapped Druva from Pune into one of the fastest-growing cloud data management companies in the world.

Druva is now a unicorn valued at over USD 2 billion, trusted by thousands of organisations globally including NASA.

His visionary market and technology insights led to the creation of the world's first cloud-native data protection platform. This allowed Druva to disrupt legacy hardware-centric models with innovative technology and a consumption-based approach.

Prior to founding Druva, Mr Singh held key roles at Veritas and Ensim Corp. He also holds multiple patents in this domain.

Mr Singh's journey — from a bootstrapped startup in Pune to Silicon Valley — is a defining chapter in India's rise as a global startup nation.

IIT Guwahati is proud to celebrate Mr Singh’s outstanding contributions as a pioneer and recognises his role as an inspiration for Indian tech entrepreneurs worldwide.

Mr Himanshu Upreti (Mathematics, Class of 2015), Co‑founder and CTO of Ai Palette

IIT Guwahati is pleased to confer the Young Alumni Achiever Award 2025 upon Mr Himanshu Upreti (Mathematics, Class of 2015).

Mr Upreti is the Co‑founder and CTO of Ai Palette, where he has built the world’s first AI platform for end‑to‑end product innovation in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry.

Under his technical leadership, Ai Palette leveraged patented predictive and generative AI technologies and expanded to 27 markets across six continents. The company currently serves leading global brands including Nestlé, Coca‑Cola, PepsiCo, L’Oréal, Kellogg’s, and Himalaya.

Ai Palette raised USD 11.3 million from prominent global investors before its acquisition by GlobalData Plc in 2025.

Mr Upreti has been recognised in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, and his work has been featured in CNBC and TechCrunch. Ai Palette has also been recognised in multiple international forums.

Prior to Ai Palette, Mr Upreti worked at Visa Data Labs, contributing significantly to core technology initiatives.

Mr Upreti remains an active and committed member of the IIT Guwahati alumni community, contributing through leadership, mentorship, and engagement initiatives.

The Institute is honoured to recognise his outstanding contributions as a deep‑tech AI entrepreneur and his global impact at an early stage of his career.