gradCapital

gradCapital is a Bengaluru-based firm that provides capital and grants to students building projects and companies. Its mandate is early-stage and pre-company: funding young founders to explore ideas and convert them into products and businesses, with technical interests spanning robotics, physics, biology, computer science and science and engineering more broadly.

Capital is deployed through four programmes differentiated by commitment level and check size. The full-time founder programme provides up to $300,000 to students working on an idea full-time. The student project programme offers $60,000 to those developing a project alongside their classes. Two smaller grants lower the barrier to experimentation: the Atomic Grant, at $1,000 to $5,000, supports science and engineering experiments, while the Feather Grant, at $1,000, is intended to test an idea.

The structure reflects an investment thesis that meaningful breakthroughs emerge from small, highly motivated groups, and that ambition should be supported before a founder has committed full-time. Rather than a single entry point, gradCapital stages exposure across a funding ladder - from a $1,000 grant to a $300,000 commitment - matching capital to the maturity of the work and to the founder's circumstances as a student.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, the firm operates at the intersection of student entrepreneurship and science and engineering projects, supporting both full-time builders and those working in parallel with their studies.