India’s top startup founders continue to give back to the institutions that had fashioned them into the successful entrepreneurs they ended up becoming.
The founders of Inmobi, No Broker, Yulu and other companies — all of whom were from the 2000 batch of IIT Kanpur — have donated Rs. 100 crore to their alma mater. The money will be used to set up the Millennium School of Technology and Society (MSTAS) at the institute. MSTAS will be a hub for integrating technology, policy, and societal transformation. It is intended to foster critical thinking, leadership, and global perspective among students. The Rs. 100 crore pledge is the highest for any batch at the institute.
Of the total corpus, Rs 30 crore will come just from InMobi’s founder Tewari in his personal capacity. Inmobi was India’s first unicorn startup when it had reached the billion-dollar valuation in 2011. Apart from Tewari, Amit Kumar Agarwal, founder of NoBroker, Amit Gupta of Yulu, and the founders of startups such as Knowlarity and Card91 have also contributed towards the donation.
There has been a spurt in recent times of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has thus far donated Rs. 400 crore to IIT Bombay, his alma mater. In 2023, IIT Bombay had received Rs. 160 crore from an alumnus who wished to remain anonymous. Other institutions have also benefitted from the largesse of their alumni — Indigo’s Rakesh Gangwal has donated Rs. 100 crore to IIT Kanpur, Happiest Minds’ Ashok Soota has donated Rs. 20 crore to IIT Roorkee, and Reckitt’s Rakesh Kapoor has donated Rs. 10 crore to BITS Pilani.