MR. ABHISHEK BHATTACHARYA
Co-founder, Brú Finance
B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering
Class of 2017, ASET, Noida

Describe your career journey and your current role.

As an introduction, I have co-founded two blockchain technology-based startups, and the first startup I did was while I was in my third year at Amity; authored a book on Blockchain Technology that has been published by Asia’s largest publisher and another one is underway; became a regular speaker talking about blockchain, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance et. al. across national and international events; taught Blockchain Tech to 7,000+ faculty, PhDs, and students across several countries as well as taken lectures across all the 23 IITs and IIMK, and have been a visiting faculty with a few prestigious universities in India.

The startup I currently run has helped 18,000+ farmers directly or indirectly with the help of blockchain, and we are also bridging this with Decentralized Finance, becoming one of the pioneering platforms to bring Real World Assets to DeFi. We are an IIM Ahmedabad startup and IIMA has created a case study on us to be taught in their flagship MBA program. We have been a bootstrapped startup for 3.5 years (in 2022), and have received grants of around US $1,30,000 (approx. INR 1.2 Crore) without shelling out any equity and recently received US $3,00,000 (INR 2.3 Crores) in token sale investments; having received grants and support from names such as United Nations Development Programme, UN Technology Bank, Govt. of India, IIMA, Binance, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, CISCO, NASSCOM, University of Toronto, University of Wyoming, MassChallenge USA, Binance, Polygon, Money2020 Singapore, and many other prominent names.

What are some of your key achievements in your illustrious career journey?

Key achievements during my career journey are spread out across a variety of domains. The most important achievement of my life till now is to be honored on the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2022 list. Other achievements include receiving a VIP Speaker invitation from the Govt. of Saudi Arabia for speaking at the CITC Conference by the Ministry of Communication and IT in Riyadh. Also, getting invited to speak at Smartcon ’22 in New York, cNFTCon ’22 in Las Vegas, and Blockchain Technology’s biggest conference, DEVCON Bogota in Colombia. Additionally, I was selected as one of 7 Ethereum Foundation Fellows globally, one of 50 entrepreneurs globally in the UNDP INSPIRO Fellowship, and one of 56 young changemakers in the THINC Fellowship. I also received a 70% scholarship to attend the Master’s in Blockchain and Digital Currency at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus – the world’s first university to offer a degree program on Blockchain.

Describe your AMITY journey. What made you choose the University, and how did it fulfill your learning aspirations?

Amity University has been a name that I heard way back while I was in high school. Getting into Amity started a very career-focused journey for me. Right from my first year at college, I was very inclined towards acquiring experiences by making the right use of the facilities available at the university, such as the Amity Innovation Incubator. I took immense support from my Head of Department, faculty, and even professors from other departments to deliver truly great work during my years at the university, including starting my first company at 19.

A message or a success mantra that you would like to give to your current Amitians.

If I at all believe that any of my steps have yielded success till now, that would be based on one single mantra - preparedness with gratitude. I have always believed that opportunities come to those who have their arms actively open, along with that, I have always been grateful for every such opportunity and relationship that has made such successes possible.