India’s first startup-focused business school, Mesa School of Business, has raised ₹110 crore through a combination of equity and venture debt to strengthen its AI-first business education offerings, expand its programmes and deepen partnerships with the startup ecosystem.
The funding includes approximately ₹85 crore in Series A equity co-led by Dharana Capital and existing investor Elevation Capital, along with ₹25 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital and Alteria Capital.
Founded in 2023 by Ankit Agarwal and Varun Limaye, Mesa School of Business offers residential programmes centred on practical, hands-on learning. Every student builds and operates a small business while learning to use artificial intelligence (AI) to develop and launch a technology product. Moreover, more than 100 founders have taught on campus, while students have completed over 200 projects with startups. The school also has backing from prominent founders, including Kunal Shah (CRED), Vidit Aatrey (Meesho), Abhiraj Bhal (Urban Company), and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm).
Over the past three years, Mesa has expanded from a single postgraduate cohort to more than 550 students across three programmes. These include a one-year Post Graduate Programme in Startup Leadership, a four-year undergraduate programme in business and entrepreneurship, and Forge, a one-year programme for fresh graduates.
Mesa alumni pursue full-time roles at startups or establish their own businesses. The first two postgraduate cohorts secured an average cost to the company (CTC) of ₹26 lakh, while the top 25% of graduates averaged ₹36.5 lakh. All placed students joined leading startups, including Zomato, Zepto, Urban Company, Scapia, and Comet. Notably, 58% of them entered founder-facing roles.
Entrepreneurship has also emerged as a key outcome of Mesa’s learning model, with nearly 20% of graduates starting their own ventures. More than 50 student startups are currently incubated at Mesa Startup Lab, the school’s in-house residency. Collectively, these ventures have raised over ₹25 crore in funding and grants and achieved an annual revenue run-rate exceeding ₹50 crore.
Their backers include Nikhil Kamath, Ronnie Screwvala, Campus Fund, BeyondSeed, Foundery, i-Venture@ISB, and IdeaBaaz. Among these ventures, Mumbai Pav Co. has raised ₹9 crore. Additionally, two student founders have appeared on Shark Tank India.
Mesa plans to deploy the newly raised capital across three key areas. First, it will strengthen its leadership team and develop capabilities in AI-led programme design and delivery, supporting the expansion of existing and new courses. Second, the school will deepen strategic partnerships with leading startups to shape its curriculum and provide students with industry-led projects, mentorship, and employment opportunities. Finally, it will invest in launching and scaling additional programmes.
“The rapid evolution of modern tech has exposed a glaring disconnect in higher education: students feel unprepared for new-age roles, and companies can’t find job-ready talent. Mesa is bridging that gap by rethinking business education for an AI-first world, ensuring students develop proven, high-impact operational capabilities,” said Vamsi Duvvuri, Founder and Managing Partner, Dharana Capital.
“Higher education in India needs to be rebuilt for the AI era, not patched. We believe founder-led, mission-driven schools like Mesa will be the new-age builders of Indian education, and we’re excited to double down,” said Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner, Elevation Capital.
“In an AI-led world, what will set ambitious young people apart is judgement, a bias for action, and an understanding of how the world actually works—and those come only from experience. That’s why at Mesa, every student builds a real business with real revenue, uses AI on live problems, and gets feedback from founders who are always in the room. That is why startups hire our students, and why so many of them go on to build their own startups,” said Ankit Agarwal, co-founder, Mesa School of Business.
“AI will take over much of back-office work. Young people shouldn’t spend their early careers in roles that are disappearing but in building, selling, and launching things. That’s what Mesa trains them to do,” said Varun Limaye, co-founder, Mesa School of Business.
