gradCapital was founded by two 24-year-olds without traditional venture backgrounds, starting from an IIM Ahmedabad dorm room with a mission to build a VC firm for students, by students, sourcing most investments through open applications rather than referrals, and proving the model early by mentoring Zepto (then KiranaKart) toward YC before the fund even existed. The firm stays hands-off with funded founders, favors science and engineering projects over typical startup categories, pairs investments with a 4-week Bengaluru cohort alongside operators like Tarun Mehta, Shashank Kumar, and Kailash Nadh, and runs a separate Atomic Fellowship offering no-equity grants for students experimenting with technical ideas—an approach so selective it funds only about 20 of the roughly 3,000 teams that apply each year.