Sixteen-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur Rudrojas Kunvar, based in Germantown, Maryland, recently turned down a $300,000 (around ₹2.8 crore) offer from a venture capitalist to drop out of high school and focus full-time on his AI startup, Evion. Instead, he chose to continue his studies while growing the company, which provides a free AI-powered crop analysis tool that uses images captured by standard camera drones to help farmers assess crop health and identify areas needing water or fertiliser.
Kunvar developed Evion after noticing that many farmers rely on guesswork to monitor crop disease and health. Inspired by camera-based systems used in companies like Tesla, he built an AI model that works with simple drones, making advanced agricultural insights accessible and affordable for small to mid-scale farms. To reach users, he partnered with agriculture nonprofits and sent outreach messages to potential clients.
Evion is now used by farmers across North America, Southeast Asia, and India. Kunvar has partnered with Jacob Lee to scale the platform and conducted pilot runs last year. Reflecting on his journey, he said entrepreneurship is full of uncertainty, but small wins provide motivation to keep innovating. He plans to continue expanding Evion while exploring further opportunities in AI and emerging technologies.
