Akshay Gupta was born in Chandigarh, India and raised in New Delhi. From the age of nine he developed a passion for art which became a life-long part of his identity. He studied Commerce and joined the management consulting firm Mercer in India. He migrated to Canada where he spent a number of years at Scotia Bank and earned an MBA. In 2018 he fused his business acumen with his love of art and launched ArtProven, a blockchain-based art platform leveraging the mental health benefits of art, that combats counterfeiting and protects artists' intellectual property.