Behind the Challenge.
The EYFI Challenge is run by Polygnan.
Is this the first time we're running the EYFI Challenge?
Yes and no.
Yes, because this is the first time we're opening it up at scale, for students across India.
No, because we've run a version of this before, inside Polygnan's YouStart program, with a smaller group.
EYFI actually grew out of YouStart, one of Polygnan's flagship programs, where students go through the real journey of building something and testing it in the market. We've seen students go on to register their own startups while some have ended up landing in internship opportunities at venture capital backed startups.
Inside YouStart, for the EYFI Challenge, students found their own way in, freelancing, drop-shipping, running food stalls, even working at restaurants. The amount folks made ranged from a few hundreds to close to 30k. But the more important part was that everyone had a story to tell, their confidence shifted, communication got sharper and students got better at handling rejections. The feedback we received from students was incredible and in fact they pushed us to make this challenge a stand alone thing and scale it up to students across India.
About Polygnan
Polygnan is a registered social enterprise, founded in 2025, working to prepare Indian youth for the future of work. We bridge the gap between industry and academia through mentorship, AI skilling, and entrepreneurship.
The core philosophy of Polygnan is "Learn by Doing".
Polygnan is incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore and was previously incubated at the Nudge. Our founders spent close to a decade at Meta and Oracle in the US before the pull toward education and impact brought them back to India to build this.
Want to help us take this further?
We're now taking EYFI nationwide, and looking for brands who want to build this with us.