BusinessWire India
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 21: Campus Fund, India’s pioneering and only SEBI-registered AIF Category II venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to student – and college dropout-led startups, has announced the launch of its third and largest fund, a $100 million corpus. With more than 50% of the fund already committed, the fund has completed its first close and has already made two early investments.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Richa Bajpai, Campus Fund reimagines venture capital by backing first-time founders while they are still in university, have dropped out of college, or are within three years of graduation. After co-founding Goodera (backed by Nexus, Omidyar, Elevation, and Binny Bansal), Richa developed the Campus Fund thesis while studying at London Business School in 2020. What began as a humble experiment has now evolved into a $100 million institutional platform powering India’s next generation of builders.
“Campus Fund is not just a VC firm — it’s a movement to unlock the genius scattered across campuses,” said Richa. “With Fund III, we double down on our conviction that student founders aren’t just dreamers — they’re doers, redefining the future from dorm rooms, garages, and labs.”
Richa began her own entrepreneurial journey in 2009, during her final year of engineering. “This is a full-circle moment for me,” she added. “I started in a dorm room with nothing but an idea and ambition. To now back students chasing bold ideas — that’s the most meaningful chapter of my career.”
Today’s student founders aren’t limited to elite institutions. They’re emerging from Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges, small towns, and unconventional backgrounds. Many are college dropouts who’ve chosen to build. As knowledge becomes more accessible, Fund III aims to democratize access to capital.
“The next unicorn may not come from Silicon Valley or Bengaluru — it might come from a hostel room in Bhopal or a garage in Surat,” Richa added.
Campus Fund operates with a network of 100+ student scouts across universities and evaluates over 7,000 startups annually. Fund III will invest in up to 60 startups over the next four years, writing initial cheques ranging from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 8 crore, with 50% of the fund earmarked for follow-on investments.
Campus Fund has previously backed companies such as Expand My Business (managed marketplace for Digital Services), Digantara (space situational awareness), EtherealX (fully reusable rockets), Sama (online dispute resolution), D-Nome (decentralized genomics infrastructure), Sarla (flying taxis), GreenGrahi (insect protein), among many others. Several of these startups have gone on to raise follow-on capital from marquee global investors, including Peak XV Partners, Accel, a16z, AlphaWave, and DST Global.
Fund III is supported by a diverse mix of family offices, successful entrepreneurs, industrialists, and financial institutions — including 360 One — with many Limited Partners re-upping after Fund II. Notable backers include Kanwaljit Singh, Founder of Fireside Ventures; Bharat Shah, Co-founder of HDFC Bank; Jaimin Bhatt, former Group CFO of Kotak Mahindra Bank; Asha Jadeja Motwani, first investor in Google; and Sameen Farooqui, Global Head of FX at Deutsche Bank.
With this momentum, Campus Fund cements its position as India’s most active early-stage backer of youth-led innovation — and a bold blueprint for venture capital in emerging markets. Backing student and dropout founders is no longer just a visionary bet — it’s one of the smartest investments of this decade. The returns are not just financial, but generational.
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