What if the next great Indian startup is not being built in a corner office, but in a hostel room? That is the bet Campus Fund has been placing since 2020 — and it is a bet that is compounding beautifully. Billed as Asia's first and only student-led venture capital fund, Campus Fund backs founders who are still in university, have dropped out of college, or graduated within the last three years. No grey hair required; in fact, grey hair might disqualify you.
The firm was founded by serial entrepreneur Richa Bajpai, who developed the Campus Fund thesis as a student at the London Business School after co-founding Goodera. It is registered as a SEBI Category II Alternative Investment Fund and runs on a model no other Indian fund can copy: a network of more than 100 student scouts that evaluates over 7,000 startups every single year. Young founders find young founders — and the pipeline shows it.
In June 2025, Campus Fund launched its largest fund yet — Fund III, a US$100 million corpus that completed its first close with more than half the capital already committed. The fund plans to back up to 60 startups over four years, writing first cheques between INR 1 crore and INR 8 crore, with half the corpus reserved for follow-on rounds. The backers themselves are a statement of confidence: institutions such as 360 One alongside notable LPs including Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures, HDFC Bank co-founder Bharat Shah, Asha Jadeja Motwani, Jaimin Bhatt and Sameen Farooqui.
The portfolio reads like a list of India's boldest young companies: Digantara (space situational awareness), EtherealX (reusable rockets), Sarla Aviation (electric air taxis), Sama (online dispute resolution), Green Grahi (insect protein), plus D-Nome, CtrlB, Bharat Sure, Expand My Business and Raho Hospitalities. Many have gone on to raise follow-on capital from the likes of Accel, Peak XV Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, AlphaWave and DST Global — proof that a first cheque from campus can unlock the world's biggest funds.
For founders, the door is opened through flagship programmes. FutureX is the fund's flagship platform for young innovators; its 2026 AI edition, run with Google Cloud, offered up to US$1 million in investment alongside Google Cloud credits and exclusive workshops, with the finale hosted at Google's Bengaluru office. The earlier FutureX – DeepTech 2025 crowned Folium Sensing of IIT Madras as its winner. Separately, the Build in India initiative earmarks up to US$10 million from Fund III for first pre-seed cheques into founders who choose to build from India — regardless of which university they studied at. Alongside capital, portfolio companies get access to the fund's investor network, government connections, technology credits, hiring and strategy support.
The thesis is simple and increasingly undeniable: talent is everywhere, including hostels, garage labs and Tier-3 colleges, while access to capital is not. Campus Fund is the rare investor built entirely to close that gap.
Why it matters for founders
If you are a student, a recent graduate or a dropout building in India, Campus Fund is the investor most likely to say yes when everyone else says you are too young. Programmes like FutureX and Build in India give you a direct application path — and the follow-on record shows that one campus cheque can open doors to the world's top-tier funds.