Technician 2

From a $1.7 billion startup to STEM leadership: Seven Indian-American women make Forbes 50 Over 50. by Veena August 19, 2026 3386 NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT Seven Indian-American women are among the trailblazers named to Forbes' 2026 50 Over 50 lists, spanning entrepreneurship, technology, STEM education, finance, philanthropy and the arts. Among this year's honorees are Ritu Narayan, the entrepreneur behind a $1.7 billion effort to reinvent the American school bus system, and Maya Ajmera, who went from participating in one of the nation's most prestigious high school science competitions as a teenager to leading the organization that runs it. They are joined by Yamini Rangan, Shubhi Rao, Savita Subramanian, Komal Shah and Asha Jadeja Motwani across Forbes' Innovation, Investment, Lifestyle and Impact categories. Forbes' annual 50 Over 50 initiative celebrates women who are achieving some of their most significant professional milestones after the age of 50. Ritu Narayan: reinventing the yellow school bus. Narayan, 53, co-founder and CEO of Zum, was named to the Innovation list for building a technology-driven school transportation company that Forbes says is now valued at $1.7 billion. The idea for Zum grew out of a problem familiar to millions of working parents. While pursuing her career in Silicon Valley, Narayan struggled to find reliable transportation for her young children. The experience reminded her of her mother, an educator in India who had given up her career because of the difficulties of balancing work and caring for her children. Indian News Updates Narayan found herself confronting a version of the same dilemma a generation later - despite living in the heart of Silicon Valley. She co-founded Zum with her brothers in 2015, setting out to modernize a school transportation system that had changed little in decades. Today, Zum uses technology to manage school bus routes and provides GPS-enabled systems that allow schools and parents to track buses. According to Forbes, the company serves 5,000 schools nationwide and generated $333 million in revenue in 2025, a 35% increase from the previous year. Its $1.7 billion valuation has made Narayan one of the relatively small number of women to have built a U.S. startup valued at more than $1 billion. Maya Ajmera: A remarkable full circle in American science. For Maya Ajmera, 59, the Forbes recognition marks an extraordinary full-circle journey. Ajmera is president and CEO of Society for Science, the nonprofit organization that runs some of America's best-known pre-college science competitions, and executive publisher of Science News. Long before she led the organization, however, Ajmera was one of the young scientists it sought to encourage. As a teenager, she participated in the Science Talent Search. Decades later, she is at the helm of the organization behind the competition. Forbes credits Ajmera, who became CEO in 2014, with significantly expanding the organization's reach and resources. Under her leadership, Society for Science secured a $100 million, 10-year sponsorship for the Science Talent Search and launched an $11 million STEM outreach initiative designed to expand opportunities for underserved students. Forbes also notes that Science News, where Ajmera serves as executive publisher, now reaches more than 23 million readers. She was named to the Innovation list. Yamini Rangan: leading HubSpot through a new era. Yamini Rangan, 53, CEO of HubSpot, also appears on the Innovation list. Born in India, Rangan moved to the United States for graduate studies, earning a master's degree in computer engineering and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. Her career included senior positions at Dropbox and Workday before she joined HubSpot and became CEO in 2021. Indian News Updates Forbes notes that under Rangan's leadership, HubSpot's revenue has doubled to $3.1 billion. The software company also recorded its first annual profit in 2025, with net income of $45.9 million. Her tenure comes as artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the software industry, presenting established technology companies with both opportunities and significant disruption. Shubhi Rao: starting Over - and building - after 50. Shubhi Rao, 59, founder and CEO of Uplevyl, rounds out the four Indian-American women named to Forbes' Innovation list. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Rao had already built an extensive corporate career, holding leadership roles at organizations including Ford Motor, Tesco, Alphabet/Google and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She founded Uplevyl in 2020, in her 50s, after recognizing gaps in workplace information about issues affecting women's careers, including caregiving and menopause. The AI-powered platform provides information and tools aimed at helping organizations and executives make better workplace decisions. Forbes says its services are used by organizations including Evercore, Ancestry.com and Equal Rights Advocates. Savita Subramanian: A voice wall street watches. On Forbes' Investment list is Savita Subramanian, 54, managing director and head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy at Bank of America. Subramanian is responsible for the bank's forecasts for major U.S. stock indexes, making her market outlook closely watched by investors and financial media. Forbes highlighted a June 2026 investment note in which Subramanian pointed to warning signs in the market and advised investors to take profits amid the possibility of a bear market. She began her career at Merrill Lynch as a strategist in 2001, years before the firm was acquired by Bank of America. Komal Shah: from Silicon Valley to championing women artists. Komal Shah, 56, named to Forbes' Lifestyle list, made a dramatic career transition from Silicon Valley technology executive to prominent art collector and philanthropist. Born in India, Shah came to the United States to study computer science at Stanford University and built a career in technology before increasingly devoting herself to the arts. She and her husband, technology investor Gaurav Garg, began assembling what became the Shah Garg Collection, which has developed a particular focus on contemporary art by women. Forbes highlighted Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection, which opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., in 2026 as part of a traveling exhibition. Through collecting and philanthropy, Shah has sought to increase the visibility of women artists in a field in which their work has historically been underrepresented. Asha Jadeja Motwani: investing in innovation and ideas. Asha Jadeja Motwani, 63, was selected for Forbes' Impact list. A Silicon Valley venture capitalist and philanthropist, Jadeja Motwani has invested in more than 200 technology startups. Forbes cites early investments in companies including Google, PayPal, Pinterest and AppDynamics. Following the death of her husband, Stanford computer scientist and early Google mentor Rajeev Motwani, in 2009, she established the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, whose work includes supporting entrepreneurship and strengthening ties between the innovation ecosystems of India and the United States. Forbes also highlighted her $5 million endowment in 2025 to establish the Motwani Jadeja Institute for American Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University in India. Taken together, the seven Indian-American honorees embody the central idea behind Forbes' 50 Over 50 initiative: that some of a woman's most consequential professional chapters can begin well after the age at which conventional career narratives suggest she should have already peaked. Narayan built Zum into a billion-dollar company after identifying a problem she encountered as a working mother. Rao became a founder in her 50s. Shah reinvented herself after a successful technology career. And Ajmera's journey brought her back, decades later, to an institution that had once encouraged her own ambitions as a young scientist. Their inclusion on the 2026 lists offers seven very different versions of the same message: 50 is not a finish line. Cover photo: Top row Yamini Rangan, Maya Ajmera, Ritu Narayan. Bottom row: Asha Jadeja Motwani, Shubhi Rao, Komal Shah and Savita Subramanian.

Ritu Narayan founded Zum in 2015 with her brothers in California to modernize US school transportation using technology. The platform enables parents and teachers to track buses via GPS-connected apps and uses artificial intelligence to optimize routes. Since launching, Zum has raised $430 million and reached a $1.7 billion valuation. Revenue climbed 35% to $333 million in 2025, with contracts across 5,000 schools in 18 states. The company's San Francisco contract cut the district's fleet from 236 to 193 buses, saving $3.5 million annually. Zum is also advancing electrification, with Oakland Unified becoming the first US district to fully electrify its fleet using Zum's 74 buses. The US school transportation market spends nearly $40 billion annually, with fewer than 2% of 500,000 school buses currently electric.

Zum sees strong driver hiring momentum as more than 200 drivers and families celebrate new Philadelphia operations center. Aug 07, 2026, 18:17 ET Grand opening marks another milestone in Zum's long-term investment in Philadelphia as hundreds of current and prospective drivers and their families gather ahead of the new school year PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Zūm, a leader in modern student mobility, this week welcomed more than 200 current and prospective school bus drivers and their families to celebrate the grand opening of its new Philadelphia operations center, demonstrating strong hiring momentum as Zum prepares to begin serving students and families in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia this school year. The event brought together drivers, families, and Zum leadership for a day of celebration, tours of Zum's new buses and operations center, onsite interviews, food, family activities, and raffle prizes. The strong turnout reflects growing excitement among Philadelphia drivers to join Zum and help usher in a new era of student mobility for the city. The new Philadelphia operations center is a modern home base designed to support drivers with state-of-the-art facilities, technology, training, and real-time operational support. Its opening represents another significant milestone in Zum's investment in Philadelphia, creating local jobs and establishing the infrastructure to deliver safe, reliable, and transparent student mobility for students and families. "This week's turnout speaks volumes about the excitement and momentum building in Philadelphia," said Liz Sanchez, Executive Vice President of Student Mobility at Zum. "More than 200 drivers and their families joined us to see firsthand what Zum is building here. These drivers are the people who make access to education possible every day, and this new operations center demonstrates Zum's commitment to giving them the technology, tools, and support they need to succeed while delivering an exceptional experience for Philadelphia students and families." "We couldn't have asked for a better way to open our new Philadelphia home," said Missy Lash, General Manager, Philadelphia at Zum. "The energy from drivers and their families was incredible. They are excited about the technology, the culture, and the opportunity to be part of something new in Philadelphia. Zum is here for the long term, and this week's event was an important step toward building an outstanding team that will serve Philadelphia students and families for years to come." For Zum, Philadelphia also represents another milestone in continued national growth. Today, Zum serves more than 6,500 schools across 18 states, including partnerships with school districts such as Boston Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District, Seattle Public Schools, Kansas City Public Schools, and Omaha Public Schools. Across the country, districts are turning to Zum to modernize student mobility and replace fragmented, outdated systems with a connected experience built around reliability, transparency, and operational excellence. Student mobility is about far more than moving students from one place to another. Reliable mobility is the onramp to learning, helping ensure students arrive safely, on time, and ready to learn while giving families greater peace of mind. Zum's partnership with the School District of Philadelphia brings that approach to one of the nation's largest school districts beginning this school year. Zum also extends a special thank you to FOX 29 in Philadelphia for helping spread the word about the grand opening and driver hiring event and highlighting the important role school bus drivers play in Philadelphia communities. With the new operations center now open and strong driver hiring momentum underway, Zum is preparing for the start of the 2026-27 school year and the next chapter of modern student mobility in Philadelphia. For those interested in joining the Zum Philadelphia team, Zum would love to hear from you. Prospective drivers and team members can visit ridezum.com to explore career opportunities, apply, and find information about upcoming hiring events in Philadelphia. Zum is modernizing mass mobility with its Connected Mobility Experience (CMX) that connects and coordinates people, vehicles, and operations in real time. In the student mobility market, Zum is addressing a daily source of anxiety and disruption by providing a reliable, transparent, and efficient mobility experience for students and families. Learn more at www.ridezum.com. Today, more than 6,500 schools in 18 states have relied on the Zum CMX(TM) system. Media Contact SOURCE Zūm