The study had findings shared in the third edition of ‘the State of Student Entrepreneurship,’ for which Campus Fund evaluated 4,800 student-led startups across the country in 2023.
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Campus Fund invests in startups run by students and offers mentorship and guidance on investing. The firm describes student founders as those who are currently students, or graduates and dropouts in the previous three years, with at least 25% equity in the company.
The percentage of student-led startups offering services in 2023 increased significantly from 1.71% to about 12%, the report said.
Services offered by these student-led startups range from digital marketing and search engine optimisation to event management, web and application development, amongst others.
“With the cost of higher education rising, students are looking for ways to earn money while still pursuing their academic goals. Starting a service-oriented business allows them to do just that, providing a flexible and potentially lucrative way to earn money while still in school. Moreover, the rise of the gig economy and the increasing demand for freelance services have created a favourable environment for student-led startups offering services,” the report said.
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The other three categories in the top five favourite sectors included consumer products and brands that went from 7.8% to 9.8%, healthtech that declined from 10.21% to 7.68% and consumer internet that also decreased from 7.77% to 6.42%.Among other findings of the report, BITS Pilani continued to lead as the university from which the maximum number of student-led startups were created at 4.07%, followed by Delhi University at 2.94% and National Institute of Technologies at 2.61%.
The report added that about 73% of the founders surveyed came from medium resource colleges, while 27% came from high resource colleges. Still, 43% (versus 52.67% in 2022) of the founders pursued a BTech degree, 13.11% pursued MBA, and 7.10% an MSc science or technology.
In terms of a regional spread, founders hailed from Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka and chose to build their startups in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram and Hyderabad.
Goodera founder Richa Bajpai also created Campus Fund. In July 2020, Campus Fund raised $10 million (about Rs 75 crore) for its second fund from large institutions, family offices, and general partners of leading funds in July 2022.
“It is the belief in the youth of this country that has manifested in the form of Campus Fund. We are extremely grateful to have this brilliant opportunity which comes with equally a huge responsibility,” Bajpai said in a statement.
