Masters’ Union Founder’s Tetr College Floats Fund To Back Student Entrepreneurs

Global business school Tetr College of Business has floated a $10 Mn (around INR 84 Cr) fund to back student entrepreneurs.

The fund, ‘Tetr – Under 20’ will invest in at least 20 ideas with a sector agnostic approach, which will include sectors like artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, sustainability, D2C, healthcare and others, it said in a statement.

It further added that the initial cheque size will range from $10,000 to $100,000.

Tetr College of Business founder Pratham Mittal, who is also the founder of alternative MBA courses provider Masters’ Union, told Inc42, “We’re looking for young minds who see these as tools to reshape industries and create meaningful impact. The next decade belongs to those who can harness AI, emerging technologies, and sustainability to solve our world’s most pressing challenges.”

The fund will be led by industry veterans and academics, including former SoftBank India head Manoj Kohli, Harvard University professor Viney Sawhney, and Mittal. 

“Traditionally, VCs look for established businesses and teams with proven track records. For young entrepreneurs, however, we only look for passion, willingness to learn and adapt, and the ability to build and test their ideas with real users,” Mittal added.

Tetr College of Business, founded by Mittal, offers a four-year undergraduate program where students study across seven countries – the US, Italy, Singapore, Brazil, the UAE, and India

This initiative follows Tetr’s recent launch of its global undergraduate program with 120 students from 45 countries. 

The initiative comes amid a surge in early-stage funding activities across India. Several venture capital firms have recently launched new funds targeting early-stage startups. 

Volt VC, a Gujarat-based micro venture capital firm, launched its maiden fund in August 2024 with a target corpus of INR 45 Cr. The fund aims to invest in 20-25 pre-seed stage startups, focusing on consumer-centric businesses across D2C, B2C, and B2B2C models.

Similarly, Trillion Dollar Ventures (TDV) announced its Fund II in 2024, with a corpus of INR 50 Cr. The fund plans to make 10-12 investments annually in pre-seed and seed-stage startups across sectors such as platform plays, marketplaces, consumer tech, fintech, and gaming.

z21 Ventures, an early-stage VC firm, marked the first close of its $40 Mn Fund II at $20 Mn in September 2024. The fund, anchored by WestBridge Capital, aims to back pre-seed and seed startups in AI, enterprise tech, and healthcare sectors.

At the heart of all these is the country’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, which is the third largest in the world. India is home to over 70,000 tech startups, of which 118 are unicorns.

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