Seventeen-year-old Arjit Aggarwal, a Grade 12 student at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, is introducing entrepreneurship education to schoolchildren through Sprout Academy, a venture he started at 15. Having grown up around his father’s startup businesses, Arjit is now sharing lessons in problem-solving and innovation through programmes that have reportedly reached nearly 1,900 students across Uttarakhand and Gujarat.
Arjit Aggarwal launched Sprout Academy at 15, now brings business lessons to classrooms
At an age when most students are busy preparing for board examinations and college applications, 17-year-old Arjit Aggarwal is working on an education venture of his own. The Grade 12 student at the American Embassy School in New Delhi launched Sprout Academy when he was just 15. His idea was to introduce schoolchildren to entrepreneurship, problem-solving and the basics of building a business.
Arjit’s interest in startups began at home. Growing up, he watched his father build two companies into unicorns, a term used for privately held startups valued at over $1 billion. According to information shared about his venture, Arjit has now taken some of those lessons into classrooms through workshops and entrepreneurship camps. His programmes have reportedly reached nearly 700 students in Uttarakhand and approximately 1,200 students in Gujarat.
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Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs
Arjit was two years old when his parents moved from Silicon Valley to India. Over the following years, conversations about business became part of everyday family life.
From product launches and hiring decisions to funding discussions and failed experiments, he grew up watching how startups operated.
He attended industry events, observed product discussions and saw how entrepreneurs dealt with uncertain business decisions.
By the age of 14, Arjit had developed an interest in sharing these experiences with other young people.
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Sprout Academy started on his 15th birthday
Arjit launched Sprout Academy on his fifteenth birthday in 2024.
The platform focuses on teaching students how to identify everyday problems, develop practical solutions and understand the basics of entrepreneurship.
Its programmes cover children from Grades 1 to 12, with lessons adapted for different age groups.
Younger students learn through simple activities and examples. Older students explore business ideas, customer needs and ways to turn projects into working solutions.
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Nearly 1,900 students reached across two states
According to details shared by Sprout Academy, one of its programmes reached nearly 700 students in Uttarakhand. Another initiative involved approximately 1,200 students in Gujarat.
During the Uttarakhand programme, Arjit noticed that several students already had experience developing science projects but knew relatively little about entrepreneurship.
“What surprised me in Uttarakhand was that some students were already developing science projects and entering state and national competitions, but had limited exposure to entrepreneurship. They began to see how their projects could become solutions that people might use and how thinking like a founder could help them take those ideas further,” said Arjit Aggarwal.
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Why teach entrepreneurship to schoolchildren?
Entrepreneurship education generally focuses on identifying problems, understanding people’s needs, testing ideas and learning from mistakes.
For Arjit, the objective extends beyond encouraging students to establish companies.
Sprout Academy aims to introduce these skills through workshops, challenges and practical learning activities.
Arjit is continuing his studies in New Delhi alongside work on Sprout Academy. The venture’s longer-term reach and educational outcomes remain to be seen, but its early programmes offer an example of a student-led attempt to bring entrepreneurship into school education.
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