New technologies edupreneur: Siddharth Maheshwari

Maheshwari (centre left): success despite education system

The latest initiative of Bengaluru-based serial entrepreneur Siddharth Maheshwari, co-founder of digital upskilling platform Newton School (NS, estb.2019), is the Newton School of Technology (NST, estb.2023). NST hosts 900 students spread across two campuses in Rishihood University, Sonipat and DY Patil University, Pune.

NS provides graduates and working professionals an AI-driven online data science course to prepare them for quick career progression. Since it was established six years ago, NS has placed over 4,500 alumni in over 800 tech companies including Google, Target, Jio, Lenskart, Razorpay, Flipkart, Zomato, and Deloitte.

Newspeg. NST, Maheshwari’s new venture, is off the blocks to a good start. Over 90 percent of second-year NST Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence students at the Rishihood University campus have secured internships in blue-chip tech companies — Razorpay, Sarvam AI, Zoomcar, Allen Digital, Physics Wallah, as also the Union government’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).

History. Born in Gwalior, Maheshwari transformed into a digital native at early age. In class X of the ECS School, Gwalior, he started a tech blog and established his own development studio. This early start conferred financial independence enabling him to pay for his own education and tech gadgets. Later, while a computer science engineering student at IIT-Roorkee (Uttarakhand), he often taught programming to children in rural schools.

In 2013 Maheshwari began his career in InMobi, an Indian multinational tech company, as a software development engineer. Two years later, he went solo and together with a fellow-student at IIT-Roorkee, Maheshwari co-founded Flicksup, a content discovery platform which “didn’t scale”. In 2017, together with Nishant Chandra, another IIT-Roorkee batchmate, he launched a learning and mentorship platform which transformed into the Newton School in 2019 and attracted venture capital of $30 million (Rs.259 crore).

Direct talk. “Working professionals in Indian industry require contemporary curriculums and mentorship to make up for the structural inefficiencies of Indian education. Professionals in industry succeed despite the education system, not because of it. Even at IIT-Roorkee, learning was mostly theoretical with little focus on workplace applications. This awareness prompted promotion of NS. Our curriculum teaches problems-solving through project-based learning and industry mentorship rather than outdated textbooks,” says Maheshwari.

The next step forward for the NS promoters was to develop a neo-university model to bridge the gap between education and industry. “Newton School of Technology, promoted four years after NS, offers class XII school-leavers a four-year residential industry-integrated B.Tech Computer Science Engineering program focused on AI, machine learning, and data science. By partnering with Rishihood and DY Patil universities, we have devised a revenue model under which these varsities provide the infrastructure — campus and hostel facilities — while we provide the curriculum and faculty. We award the degree jointly with these universities equipped with excellent enabling infrastructure,” explains Maheshwari.

NS course (14 months) fees: Rs.225,000; NST residential four years: Rs.6 lakh per year.

Future plans. With market response having proved “excellent,” Maheshwari has drawn up ambitious plans for both schools. “In NS, which provides online education to postgrad and working professionals, the focus is on AI-powered upskilling, developing more AI-driven learning products to enhance personalised education and career progression. For NST which is for higher secondary school-leavers, we are all set to launch a standalone NST campus in Electronic City, Bengaluru,” says Maheshwari.