gradCapital launches USD 6-million fund for students’ startups

Bengaluru-based venture capital fund gradCapital has launched its second fund of USD 6 million (about Rs 49 crore) to invest in students’ startups. The VC fund on Friday said it will offer a standard cheque of USD 40,000 (Rs 33 lakh) at 4 per cent equity in companies set up by students.

gradCapital co-founder and CEO Abhishek Sethi said, “We are not in the business of finding and investing in deals, we are in the business of letting students be more ambitious and build a future, despite having a challenging education system. Students are more likely to start a D2C company instead of a quantum computer, and we need more of the latter.” The selected entrepreneurs will take part in a four-week cohort programme in Bengaluru, which will include meetings with Ather Energy co-founder Tarun Mehta, Razorpay co-founder Shashank Kumar and Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh, the company said.

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The fund is backed by CIIE.CO and the cohort has Nearbuy co-founder Ankur Warikoo, Info Edge founder and Executive Vice President Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh, among others. Founded in 2021 by two IIM Ahmedabad alumni, gradCapital earlier conducted a cohort of five teams to help them get into YC and Zepto. gradCapital had then raised USD 1 million to deploy into 18 companies. The fund is now running at about two times of its initial value within 18 months, it said.