Edtech still the most popular among student founders

For the second year in a row, the most popular sector among student founders in India continues to be edtech, investor Campus Fund said in the second edition of its ‘State of Student Entrepreneurship in India’ report.

However, the popularity of the sector is lower than it was a year ago, it said.

While edtech had a 12.7% share, down from 16.3% last year, healthtech (10%) and new-age tech startups (8.5%), including Web 3.0, crypto and blockchain technologies, formed the next two popular cohorts, according to the report.


The Campus Fund study evaluated 2,000 student-led startups across the country from July 2021 to December 2022.

CEO Richa Bajpai told ET that the sample base reflects 80-90% of student entrepreneurs in the country.

“More and more students are trying to come into the edtech space but the ones who are getting funding are far and few in between… Till now, we haven't invested in any edtech yet because everything is like a me-too,” said Bajpai.

While around two-thirds of the student founders originated from medium resource colleges, only a third were from high-resource colleges, according to the report, and about 70% of the student-led startups operated in or from tier-1 cities.

Bengaluru accounted for 17.7% startups, down from 21% in the previous edition, followed by Delhi-National Capital Region (16.5%). Mumbai (11%), Hyderabad (3.5%) and Chennai (4.5%) had similar shares as in the previous edition.

According to an estimate, 54% of founders from tier-1 cities started their ventures after they had graduated from their respective degrees, whereas among founders starting up in non-tier-1 cities, 62% started out earlier, while still pursuing their degrees. “This reinforces the fact that more and more student founders are looking at starting up as a viable career opportunity,” said the report.

“Students, while starting up, should focus on the fundamentals and not just what is

fashionable. That is, what are the customer’s unmet or underserved needs, where is there inefficiency in how products or services are delivered today, what types of innovation (is needed) in tech and analytics,” Alok Kshirsagar, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, said in the report.

Bajpai told ET that edtech was most popular among the surveyed students because that is an area that the cohort most closely relates to, followed by healthcare. “We are seeing a lot of startups working in the areas of online tutoring, vernacular curriculum, upskilling and hobbies. Again, they still need to prove their business model,” she said.

Campus Fund invests anywhere from about Rs 83 lakh to Rs 8.3 crore in startups run by students and also offers mentorship and guidance on investing.

It is currently investing from its second fund, launched in July 2022, with a Rs 100 crore corpus. About 20% of its second fund stands deployed, in nine startups, said Bajpai. From its pilot Rs 7 crore fund, it had invested in a total of 10 startups earlier.