Meet the 2025 Class of 30 Under 30 Education – entrepreneurs and changemakers who impressed a panel of experts from a pool of thousands.

By Katherine Love, Emma Whitford and Alison Bowen

ATthe age of 28, Zoe Bentleya visually impaired graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was co-inventor of the MIT Media Lab’s OctoStudio, an app that teaches children, including those who are blind or visually impaired, how to code. Since its launch last year, OctoStudio has been downloaded 1.6 million times and translated into 29 languages. Bentley, now 29, embodies something Forbes looks to the next generation of education entrepreneurs for unique ideas, creative problem solving and impressive scale.

for 14 years Forbes has highlighted some of the most promising and ambitious young entrepreneurs and changemakers in education in its annual list, which begins with thousands of nominations from the public. This year is no different—the list includes twenty-somethings who have developed AI-powered tutoring apps, nonprofit residential learning communities, and online schools.

To be considered for this year’s list, all candidates had to be under 30 years old as of December 31, 2024. The candidates for this list were evaluated by a panel of experts, including: Tess Michaelsa Forbes 30 Under 30 alum and founder of recruitment platform Buckle; Max Lytvynco-founder of writing assistant Grammarly; Jenny Rickard, CEO of the Common Application; And Ian Chiu, Managing director of education-focused venture capital firm Owl Ventures.

Artificial intelligence in education is exploding – market research firm Grand View Research expects the market to experience a compound annual growth rate of 36% between 2022 and 2030, making AI education technology a $32 billion global market. Six of the 30 list makers were praised by our jury this year for the AI-powered products they developed. Former college admissions consultant Julia Dixon, 29has developed an AI writing tutor designed to improve equity in college admissions by helping applicants brainstorm, outline, and edit admissions essays. Since affirmative action is now banned in college admissions, the essay is one of the only ways for students to discuss their race and ethnicity with the admissions team. Dixon calls her tool ESAI – a play on “essay” – and has raised $1.25 million in funding since launching in 2023. Much of her marketing plan is based on TikTok, where her videos have attracted millions of views. Arman Jaffer, 29, has made teachers’ lives easier with Brisk, a Google-integrated AI app that helps with lesson planning, creating tests, writing feedback, and more. One in 10 U.S. teachers use the freemium product, and Jaffer has raised nearly $7 million for the company. Co-Founder Michael Giardino, 24, Sidhant Bendre, 25And Achraf Golli, 26used artificial intelligence to develop their homework help app Quizard AI. Since launching in 2023, Quizard AI has acquired nearly four million users who have completed more than 70 million on-demand AI tutoring sessions, and the three co-founders expect revenue to reach $3.5 million this year becomes.

Playful learning and “edutainment” also continue to be trendy. Daniel Sun, 24And Akshaj Kadaveru, 24Co-founder of MathDash, an online game that pits students against each other to solve math problems. The startup, which was launched just ten months ago, has already raised $1.7 million from backers such as Y Combinator and Google Ventures. The two report almost 350 daily players. With King of the Curve – the playful exam preparation platform from William Kelly, 25, Andrew Paul “AP” McIntosh, 25And Heath Rutledge Jukes, 25in 2020 – Students can study for MCAT, NCLEX, and other science and medical exams with explainer videos, flashcards, and AI tutoring. More than 400,000 students have downloaded King of the Curve and spend an average of $17 per month using the app.

A handful of our listmakers have focused on building communities this year – in person and online. Princeton graduate Natalie Tung, 29who grew up in Hong Kong and attended high school at a boarding school in New Jersey, follows her distinguished experience as a boarding school student for underprivileged girls. Her nonprofit, HomeWorks Trenton, is a free, after-school program for public high school girls in Trenton, New Jersey, providing residential housing, meals, and transportation to and from school. Since opening eight years ago, Tung has raised $6.6 million for the nonprofit and housed 70 girls. In 2021, Hailey Carter Seder, 29founded the EdTech MBA Community to bring together edtech-oriented graduate students and now has 1,500 members. List maker Aarian Forman, 29Co-founded Atlanta-based nonprofit organization Xceleader in 2021 with the goal of empowering Black students at historically Black colleges and universities to become civic leaders and entrepreneurs. More than 8,000 students and alumni have participated in workshops, mentoring and other Xceleader programs, and Forman and his co-founders have raised $1 million in grants, including funding from the Lumina Foundation and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

As always, several list makers impressed the judges for their leadership skills and achievements in more traditional academic areas. Krystal McLeod, 29She was selected as executive director of New York University’s Center on Violence and Recovery and in her role has raised $2.8 million for the center. Ryan Liu, 29serves on the Board of Trustees of Pasadena City College and Bushra Amiwala, 26She was elected to the Skokie School Board in April 2019 at age 21, making her one of the youngest elected officials in the country.

This year’s list was edited by Katherine Love, Alison Bowen and Emma Whitford. To view the complete education list 2024, Click hereand for all 30 under 30 covers, Click here.

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