VenturEdu launches Emerging Founders Program, offers up to Rs 50,000 stipend to young entrepreneurs at 2-day bootcamp
The programme is open to solo founders as well as teams of up to four members, with no prior startup experience required. Selected teams participating in the two-day, in-person bootcamp in Gurgaon in September will be eligible for a stipend of up to Rs 50,000 per team, along with travel reimbursement of up to Rs 5,000. There is no programme fee or equity dilution.
From the bootcamp, 25 founders will be selected for a two-month residency at VenturEdu from October 1 to November 30. During the residency, founders will work on validating their ideas, building products and developing their business models with access to mentors and the wider VenturEdu ecosystem.
“Young people today are increasingly willing to consider entrepreneurship early in their careers, but an idea at 20 or 25 is rarely accompanied by the network, operating experience or access to capital needed to build a company. The Emerging Founders Program is designed to bridge that gap by giving young founders a structured environment to test an idea, build a product and learn directly from people who have built and scaled businesses,” said Kulmani Rana, Founder, VenturEdu.
Participants will receive mentorship from startup founders, industry leaders and regulators, with an emphasis on practical company-building rather than classroom-led entrepreneurship training.
At the end of the two-month residency, the top five startups will receive direct entry into the Fibonacci X accelerator, providing a pathway for promising ventures to move from early-stage company building to acceleration and potential investment.
“We also do not want the ability to pay for a programme to determine who gets an opportunity to build. There is no programme fee or equity dilution. In fact, we are providing stipend support of up to Rs 50,000 per team for the two-day bootcamp. For the strongest ventures, the journey can continue into the Fibonacci X accelerator, creating a pathway from an early idea to acceleration and potentially investment,” Rana added.
The Emerging Founders Program expands VenturEdu’s effort to identify entrepreneurial talent beyond India’s established startup hubs. Across its programmes, including its flagship PGP, VenturEdu said it has received interest from more than 3,000 prospective founders. The team has interacted with around 400 prospects and invited about 50 to apply to different VenturEdu programmes, with those applications currently under process.
As part of its founder outreach, VenturEdu plans to conduct interactions across 35 to 40 cities in India, of which more than 20 cities have already been covered. The outreach is aimed at identifying aspiring entrepreneurs across metros as well as emerging startup centres and giving them access to a structured venture-building ecosystem.
The Emerging Founders Program is a new initiative and applications are currently being invited for its inaugural cohort.
VenturEdu’s broader venture-building model combines structured learning, hands-on execution support, mentorship and access to capital. The platform works with aspiring founders from the idea stage with the objective of helping them build funded, scalable businesses while reducing the gaps between entrepreneurship education, company building and early-stage funding.
About VenturEdu
VenturEdu is India’s first residential venture-building programme for aspiring founders. It works with first-time entrepreneurs to co-build and invest in ideas, providing access to structured business learning, experienced mentors, execution support and investor networks. Its programmes are designed to help aspiring founders move from an early idea to a scalable venture.