Mesa School of Business, a higher education startup in India, has raised INR 34 crore in a funding round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Vidit Aatrey, and Abhiraj Bahl.
The funds will be used to develop a curriculum and deliver it in partnership with startup leaders and potential future employers for a founding cohort of 60 students. The B-school offers a 12-month, full-time PG programme in Startup Leadership and claims that students will get access to opportunities for leadership roles at startups and tech companies in the country.
The program’s core principle is “learning by doing,” where every candidate will learn business directly from startup CXOs and practitioners, build startup businesses from scratch as part of coursework and deeply immerse themselves into Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem. The founding cohort will commence this September, and the fee is INR 14.95 lakh for the one-year program, with scholarship support available for some students.
Mesa School of Business has received more than 300 applications, with the founders expecting the final numbers to be more than 1000. The B-school has invited startup founders and senior leaders to design the curriculum for the program, and some of them have agreed to join as faculty members and mentors as well.
India has witnessed a recent rise in higher education, upskilling, and reskilling startups offering PG diplomas and above, focused on new-age subjects such as data science, AI, and ML, among others.
According to Inc42 data, these startups have raised $2.6 Bn between 2014 and Q1 2023. Some of the incumbents in the segment include upGrad, Great Learning, Masai School, Eruditus, and Springboard, among others.
Tata Digital has also entered into this segment, launching a new platform NeuSkills and offering courses in data analytics and frontend development. Recently, upskilling unicorn upGrad picked up an INR 300 Cr investment from Ronnie Screwvala and Temasek.
