BENGALURU: A student-run venture capitalist startup has raised Rs 75 crore in funds to invest in other student-led startups. Campus Fund, founded by Richa Bajpai, has been working towards funding student-led startups working out of and for India. It’s the first-ever dorm-room fund-type startup founded in India, catering specifically to student startups by using students to scout entrepreneurs in various universities and colleges across India.
“We worked with over 60+ students across the country to scout and evaluate more than 1,600 student-led startups in the last two years. We now have a portfolio of ten diverse student-led startups with strong fundamentals,” Bajpai said.
On July 7, Bajpai announced that Campus Fund had raised Rs 75 crore for investment in student-led startups in its second funding initiative. This is over ten times more than the startup’s first funding initiative, which managed to raise Rs 7 crore in June 2020.
A number of investment companies and banks like Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Essilor India, IIFL Wealth and Fireside Ventures have all contributed to the fund. In addition, Campus Fund also released their annual report on student-led startups — State of Student Entrepreneurship in India — which provides highlights on different trends.
Interestingly, a majority of student-led startups are in the edtech sector, focusing on student mentorship. The report also found that after Delhi, Bengaluru was the hotspot for student-led startups, with a third of them operating out of Tier-1 cities actually belonging to students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.