JUNE 20229Edtech is the most popular sector among student founders too in India, accounting for 5.6 percent of high resource campuses (HRCs) and 10.7 percent of medium resource campuses (MRCs), according to Campus Fund's report titled 'State of Student Entrepreneurship in IndiaRicha Bajpai, a Co-Founder of Goodera, has launched Campus Fund, a new firm that will invest in student-led startups. Campus Fund, a first-of-its-kind initiative, will invest in 30 companies founded by students from IIMs, IITs, and BITS, among others. Students will be on the investment committee, and the average cheque size will be around Rs. 50 lakh.Although such a fund is new to the country, Dorm Room Fund and Creator Fund are examples of successful student venture models around the world. TaxiForSure Co-Founder Raghunandan G and redBus Founder Phanindra Sama are among Campus Fund's backers."We are industry agnostic, but we prefer technology-first startups since we believe students have a leg up on the competition when it comes to cutting-edge technology. We're attempting to connect with student entrepreneurs all throughout the country ", Richa stated.After a startup has been sourced, it goes through three rounds of formal contact with its team members, who assess market size, uniqueness, defensibility, scalability, and founder fit, among other things. The startup then pitches to an investment committee and is funded if it receives 60 percent affirmative votes.Campus Fund welcomes founders from any university in the country and from any field of study. We fund startups founded by current students, dropouts, or recent graduates within the last three years. Following the transaction, Campus Fund assists its portfolio with industry connections, mentorship, hiring, and venture capital reach, all of which are critical for a startup's success.Grey Orange Robotics, Pixxel, and Ather Energy are just a few of the top innovative companies that have been created on college campuses. At the same time, most firms, such as Flipkart, Ola, and TaxiForSure, are started by classmates or friends from the same university.Richa was a student entrepreneur herself. She co-created CSR technology platform Goodera in early 2014 and founded NextGen in 2009, during her final year of engineering. Bajpai stepped down in June of last year to return to school in London and came across the Dorm Room Fund concept.Richa has a master's degree in business administration from London Business School. She is the founder of Campus Fund, Goodera, and NextGen, as well as an advisor to BlueKnot Partners and Creator Fund.Apart from startups from IITs, IIMs, and BITS, the platform is seeing interesting startups from VIT, DU, Manipal, Bhartiya Vidyapeeth, Amrita University, MS Ramaiah, and Dhirubai Ambani CoE, among others. Editorial Exclusive
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