Two graduates from IIM-A and BITS Pilani have initiated a $1 million venture capital fund, gradCapital, to support and invest in startups founded by college students.

The Founders, Abhishek Sethi from IIM-A and Prateek Behera from BITS Pilani would invest $25,000 in each of the 20 start-ups that they will choose over the next year. gradCapital plans to invest in 100 startups in the next three years.

The venture, supported by CIIE.CO - The Innovation Continuum’, would host an eight-week intensive programme.

"Apart from building a strong and sustainable structure for their company, these young entrepreneurs will leave with countless tools, crucial knowledge, a network of peers, mentors, and investors, and funding of $25,000", according to a statement.

gradCapital has now opened the application process for its first cohort of start-ups.

"We genuinely believe in academic spaces. Entrepreneurship is a way to bring such strong ideas to life and create value for society. We are betting on such ideas," said Sethi.

While conceptualising the idea of gradCapital, Sethi and Behera ran a pilot to test their "hypothesis" and ended up with a cohort of eight companies, including KiranaKart, Humit, Codedamn, Valerio Electric, and Neuralastic.

"There is tremendous value waiting to be unlocked by students from Science, Commerce, Arts, and Engineering colleges,” said Behera.