Vijay Pravin Maharajan | Founder & CEO – bitsCrunch GmbH
In the data science community, Vijay Pravin Maharajan, needs no introduction. He was among the “Top 20 Data Scientists to be followed on Linkedin” in 2020, awarded as the 2020s “Top 40 under 40 Data Scientists – India”, by Analytics India Magazine and also Nominated as “20+ Inspiring Data Scientists to follow in 2020” by AI Time Journal, USA.
Vijay Pravin Maharajan currently serve as the Founder & CEO of bitsCrunch GmbH, one of the top 4 AI companies in Munich, Germany, which is focusing on securing the NFT ecosystem. He is a 3 Times TEDx speaker and will be seen as a speaker in upcoming Paris Blockchain week summit 2022. In this article, we’ll follow the personal bio, entrepreneurship life, career journey and future plans for this Indian wunderkind.
Quick Info
| Name | Vijay Pravin Maharajan |
| Known For | Founder & CEO – bitsCrunch GmbH |
| Age | 32 Years |
| Home Town | Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Current Residence | Munich, Germany |
| Education | Masters in Electrical Engineering & IT |
| Net Worth | $1 Million |
| Hobby | Cricket, Collecting Stamps & Coins |
| Marital Status | Married to Rathina Mangai |
| Social Media | LinkedIn, Twitter , Instagram |
Early Life
Vijay Pravin Maharajan was born in the South Achampatti village near Sankarankovil, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu state of India. His father works in the police force while his mother works as a government school teacher in the Thoothukudi city of Tamil Nadu, where he also grew up. He also has a younger sister, currently working as a Research Scientist in Biocon Industries, Bengaluru. His sister holds a Masters degree in Bio-Technology from CEG campus, Guindy.
Marriage
In 2018, he got married to “Rathina Mangai Balu”, after her masters completion in computer science from College of Engineering, Guindy. She currently works as a Software Developer at “SCAPS GmbH” in Oberhaching, Munich. The couple recently became a proud parent to a daughter named “Iniya”.
Education
Vijay completed his class 10th – Secondary School Certificate and class 12th – Higher Secondary Certificate in the year 2006 and 2008 respectively. He then enrolled in the four year Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree program in “Electronics and instrumentation engineering” from Anna University, Chennai.
Due to some unforeseeable circumstances at his college, he had to redo his 1st year of B.E. and finally passed with 2008-2013 batch of students from Anna University. He also completed 3 month student internship at SAIL (Steel Authority of India) and presented a project in an international conference (ICRTET-2012) in Singapore, during his pre-final and final year of B.E. He completed the under graduation course with Distinction credit of 9.1/10.
For his masters, Vijay cleared all the entrance eligibility criteria and got into the “Masters of science in communication engineering” program from the department of electrical engineering and information technology at TUM (Technical University of Munich) in Munich, Germany. He completed his masters with the batch of 2013-2015.
Professional Career
While pursuing his masters, Vijay Pravin worked as a graduate research assistant (Feb 2014 – Apr 2014) for “IFEN GmbH“, a Bavarian based company, that provides innovative and leading edge GNSS testing products for the satellite navigation market.
He then worked for “Telefónica Germany“, a provider of broadband, landline and mobile telecommunications in Germany. He joined the company as a graduate research intern from April 2014 – September 2014. Then for a year from Oct 2014 – Dec 2015, he was a part of the company as a “working student”. Vijay left the company after working as a “Data scientist” for 4 years from Apr 2014 – Apr 2018.
From May 2018 to December 2018, Vijay worked as a Data Scientist in Volkswagen AG in the Wolfsburg Area, Germany. He worked as a Data Scientist with the Global Audit team and mastered tools like KNIME, Python, Qlik-Sense & VBA etc.
He then switched company and worked as “Customer & Analytics Solutions Expert – Business Analyst” for “Siemens” – Munich location. He worked here for a period of 2 years and 10 months (from Dec 2018 – Sep 2021).
Journey As Founder of BitsCrunch
On May 22, 2020, Vijay Pravin Maharajan founded “BitsCrunch” with co-founder Saravanan Jaichandaran. Headquartered in Munich, Bavaria and operating from 2 locations in Munich and Bengaluru, India; BitsCrunch is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) that excels in NFT-Focused Blockchain Analytics.
In June 2021, BitsCrunch has raised a funding of $7,50,000 (around ₹ 5.5 crore) in 1 seed round, from 6 investors: Genblock Capital (lead investor), Double Peak, Covalent, Ledger Prime, Synaps and MEXC Global. The Indian location of the company provides insights to NFT marketplaces like Polygon & WazirX etc., and acts as the NFT Ecosystem Guardians.
Guest Speaker at Events
As an expert on Data Science, Data Analytics, Data Visualization, Blockchain, Business Analytics, Big Data, Public Speaking, deFi, NFT, and Machine Learning, Vijay has been a keynote and guest speakers at many international conferences.
| Event | Period |
| Paris Blockchain Week Summit 2022 | Speaker (13-14 April 2022) |
| TEDxDIT | November 10, 2021 |
| GBA Blockchain Week 2021 | Online Panel (March 30, 2021) |
| KNN (ken’s nearest neighbors) Podcast | Episode 13 (Nov 2020) |
| Josh Talks Tamil | Motivational Speaker (Sep 2020) |
| Data Business Congress | Speaker (Feb 3-4 2020) |
| MLDS (Machine Learning Developers Summit) 2020 | Guest Speaker (22-23 Jan 2020) |
| Big Data Analytics Conference by WhiteHall Media UK | Guest Speaker (June 2019) |
| 5th Big Data Strategy Dialog by Cintona Limited | Guest Speaker (May 2019) |
| TEDx Talk Deggendorf, Germany | November 9, 2018 |
Some Quick Facts About Vijay
- Vijay is the first Indian below the age of 30, who got invited for a TEDx talk in Germany
- Vijay Pravin Maharajan Tedx Talks Title are: “Little things that make a big difference” and “Bridging Expectation versus Reality”.
- Vijay Scored Band 7.0 in IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam in 2012 and scored 316 in GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) in 2013.
- Favorite food: Briyani (Indian cuisine)
- He joined “Panimalar Engineering college” located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu but after 1st year due to some issues he had to switch college. He then redo the first year and following 3 years from Kongu Engineering College in Erode, Tamil Nadu (also affiliated to Anna University).
- Languages Known: Tamil, German and English
- Won the Best Outgoing Student Award in 2013 for the “Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering” department of Kongu Engineering College.
- Company Email: [email protected]
- Vijay Pravin Maharajan is also an avid Traveler, with around 25 countries under his belt.
