About

Students teaching their own cities what the internet is for.

ByteByByte Initiative is a youth-led organisation founded in 2025 by Reeti Maniar. It has 9 chapters, 7 in Indian cities and one each in Egypt and Chile, and is backed by Microsoft.

How it started

ByteByByte started with a conversation at home. Our house help needed to pay someone and they would only take it online. She had a phone. She didn't know how to use it the way the world now works.

Reeti went looking for how common that was, and found it was most people.

What we hold to

01
People remember what they do.
Not what they hear. Every session is built around the learner doing the thing, on a real device, before they leave.
02
Finish something real.
Every Build With AI cohort ends on a demo day, with students presenting what they built to their families. Every ByteShield session ends with 1930 saved in every phone.
03
Their language, not ours.
A rule someone cannot repeat is a rule they will forget by evening. We teach in the language the room thinks in.

What it does

ByteByByte runs three programmes. Build With AI is a six week cohort for students aged 14 to 17. Microsoft × ByteByByte is a curriculum built on Microsoft's education resources, from Class 5 to college. ByteShield is a two hour session that teaches older people to spot a cheat, run with the Cyber Branch, Pune Police.

Where it operates

ByteByByte has 9 chapters: Pune, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Bangalore in India, and chapters in Egypt and Chile. A chapter belongs to a school, a college or a neighbourhood, so one city can hold several.

Who runs it

ByteByByte was founded in 2025 by Reeti Maniar, who leads it. It is run by a core team of six and has 120 volunteers.

What it has done

As of October 2026, ByteByByte volunteers have taught more than 800 students across more than 90 teaching sessions, and the organisation has raised more than ₹1 lakh. Its first fundraiser, ByteFest, was held in Pune in November 2025 and raised ₹70,000+ on the night.

The core team

And 120 volunteers across 9 chapters.

Reeti Maniar
Founder
Suhani Deswal
Vivin Sharma
Alaukik Dave
Akshat Singh
Thanissha Karthikeyan

Students teaching their own cities what the internet is for.Students teaching their own cities what the internet is for.