Meet The Malaysian Couple On The Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 List

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 Eswaran Mohan and Renuga Nair have gone from making Snapchat lenses to building a global immersive tech agency.
Eswaran Mohan and Renuga Nair say they had not expected to make it on the Forbes list. (Andrea Edmonds @ FMT Lifestyle)PETALING JAYA: For Eswaran Mohan and Renuga Nair, the magic hour was between 3am and 5am – that quiet stretch of time when most of the world is buffering in sleep mode
“He woke me up and said, ‘We are on the Forbes list’,” recalled Ipoh-born Renuga of her husband’s good news.
“Our baby was between us. So, we were whispering to each other. We were quietly celebrating. But it didn’t really hit us what being on Forbes meant.”
The couple had been on their vacation in London last month when they discovered they’d been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 list under the Social Media, Marketing & Advertising category.
“When we came back, we were so jet-lagged. So we told each other, ‘Let’s take some time to digest the whole thing’,” said Shah Alam-born Eswaran.
It was only when they began receiving congratulatory messages from friends that it dawned on them just how real and huge the recognition was.
Eswaran says working with augmented reality and artificial intelligence excites him. (Eswaran Mohan pics)Eswaran and Renuga have now joined the ranks of fellow Malaysians like professional squash player Sivasangari Subramaniam; Lee Zhe Xi, co-founder of Eat and Cook;  and Raudhan Nazran, founder of the social enterprise Accelerate Global, who have all made the Forbes list in previous years.
They are now Asia’s first official Snapchat lens creators, and among the first 30 globally. Through their company Exar Technologies, they have helped put Malaysia on the (virtual) map.
“The recognition means a lot to us – reinforcing the belief we had in ourselves. Sometimes when you are in your own world, you feel a bit demotivated. When you get recognised, you start reinforcing your belief that you are on the right path,” said Eswaran.
For Renuga, the recognition was “a confidence boost” in the midst of hardship and business slowing down. “This makes you go, ‘You know what? Let’s just keep going’.”
Renuga, a chemistry graduate, believes it’s important to like what you do. (Andrea Edmonds @ FMT Lifestyle)Since launching Exar Technologies in 2018, Eswaran and Renuga have levelled up in every way, together with their creative director Arun Mohan, Eswaran’s younger brother.
What started as a passion for creating augmented-reality (AR) filters for social media has now evolved into a full-blown immersive tech-solutions agency.
“We integrate these technologies to be able to create interactive content for you to boost engagement awareness for marketing campaigns,” Eswaran explained. Some of their clients include multinationals such as Nestlé, Fujitsu, Honda and FoodPanda.
Eswaran and Renuga, who met while studying at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor, attribute their success to each other, saying they keep each other accountable for their work while challenging and spurring each other on.
“You need someone who believes in you more than yourself,” said Eswaran, an electrical-mechatronics graduate. He shared that during tough times when he gets discouraged, Renuga is his pillar of support.
Eswaran and Renuga sometimes conduct workshops at their alma mater, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. (Eswaran Mohan pic)Indeed, through many ups and downs, they have stuck to a piece of advice someone close to them once offered.
“This person told us, ‘Life has a lot of junctions, but you need to go to the junction to make the next decision. So, why don’t you go to the junction first and then decide?’” added Renuga, a chemistry graduate.
“We still talk about this whenever we need to make decisions.”
Their advice to young dreamers in the tech space? “Make use of whatever you already have. If you’re waiting for something to happen, especially today with so many tools available, you don’t have any reason not to start,” said Eswaran.
As for the future, the husband and wife hope to build their own media company to create more awareness about AR, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
“We are very much excited to keep going in this industry instead of branching out into other technologies because we love this. This is what excites us all the time,” said Eswaran.
“My belief is that if you’re going to spend time doing something, you might as well do something you like,” Renuga concluded.
Find out more about Exar Technologies here. Follow Exar Technologies on Instagram. - FMT

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