Bengaluru-based Mesa School of Business, a residential business school that trains students to work in and build startups, has raised Rs 110 crore in funding in a mix of Series A equity and venture debt.
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The equity component of about Rs 85 crore was co-led by Dharana Capital and existing investor Elevation Capital. The remaining Rs 25 crore came as venture debt from InnoVen Capital and Alteria Capital.
The round values Mesa at about Rs 385 crore post-money, according to reports.
Mesa said it will use the capital in three areas. It will strengthen its leadership team and build capabilities in AI-led programme design and delivery, so it can scale both existing and new programmes.
It will deepen partnerships with startups, which help shape its programmes and give students industry-led projects, mentorship and job opportunities. And it will invest in launching and scaling new programmes.
“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,” said Ankit Agarwal, co-founder of 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 building, selling and launching things. That’s what Mesa trains them to do,” said Varun Limaye.
What Mesa does
Mesa was founded in 2023 by Agarwal, an IIT Bombay and Harvard Business School graduate who earlier worked at BCG and Urban Company, and Limaye, a Kellogg School of Management alumnus who previously worked at Amazon. Mesa said its mission is to build “India’s Stanford”.
Its programmes are built around learning by doing. Every student builds and runs a small business and learns to use AI to build and launch a tech product. Mesa said more than 100 founders have taught on campus, and students have worked on more than 200 projects with startups.
Instead of employing full-time faculty, it uses around 2,000 industry professionals, including startup founders, executives and specialists, to design and deliver its curriculum.
The school started with a single postgraduate batch. When it raised its Rs 34 crore seed round led by Elevation Capital in April 2023, it planned a founding cohort of 60 students for a 12-month, full-time postgraduate programme in startup leadership, with classes beginning in September 2023. CRED founder Kunal Shah, Meesho co-founder Vidit Aatrey and Urban Company co-founder Abhiraj Bhal were among the angel investors in that round. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is also a backer.
Three years later, Mesa has more than 550 students across three programmes: the 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. That is roughly nine times the size of the first cohort.
Mesa’s revenue was more than Rs 11.4 crore in FY25, up about 242% from the previous year, according to the reports.
