BusinessWire India
Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], March 17: The second edition of the landmark programme is being organised with support from Google Cloud. Applications open nationwide on 17th March. Prizes include up to $1 million in investment from Campus Fund, Google Cloud credits, and exclusive workshops. Apply here - https://yourcampusfund.com/futurex/.
Campus Fund, a $100M fund investing exclusively in student-led/dropouts/recent graduate startups, today announced the launch of FutureX - AI. The second edition of India's premier platform for young innovators, FutureX, doubles down on Artificial Intelligence across the full stack - from foundational to applied - inviting the country's most ambitious student founders, college dropouts and early graduates to compete for investment, infrastructure, and a platform to build what's next.
Applications are now open and will close on 10th April 2026. The programme runs through May, culminating in a grand finale at Google's Bengaluru office on 29th May 2026, where the top 10 shortlisted startups will pitch to an esteemed panel of investors, founders, and industry leaders.
"FutureX began with a simple conviction - that some of India's most consequential companies will be built by people still on campus or who just left it. The first edition proved that. FutureX AI goes deeper into AI, the single most transformative technology of our times, and gives young innovators the capital access, infrastructure, and community to build something that lasts."
- Richa Bajpai, Founder and CEO, Campus Fund
Building on a Strong First Edition
FutureX - DeepTech 2025 set a high bar. The winners were:
- Winner - Folium Sensing - Fiber optic based distributed sensing technologies from IIT Madras
- First Runner-Up - NCF Labs - Discoverers of a new material that has an exceptionally high solar to thermal efficiency of 87.9% from IIT Bombay
- Second Runner-Up - Climitra - vertically integrated ecosystem for waste biomass-driven industrial decarbonization also from IIT Bombay
The inaugural edition was evaluated by a distinguished jury:
- Bharat Shah - Co-Founder, HDFC Bank
- Aprameya R - Co-Founder & CEO, Koo
- Mohit Saxena - Co-Founder & Group CTO, InMobi
- Raghunandan G - Founder, Zolve
- Mekin Maheshwari - Founder, Udhyam
- Shanti Ekambaram - Deputy MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Yatin Shah - Co-Founder, 360 ONE
- Akarsh Hebbar - President, Vedanta, Spark Startups and Display Glass
- Arun Chittilappilly - Co-Founder & MD, Wonderla Holidays
- Sandeep Cashyap - Head of Startup Business, India, Google Cloud
The jury for FutureX AI will be announced soon.
What We're Looking For
FutureX AI is exclusively focused on AI startups. We're in search of the best student-led startups/dropout/graduates within 3 years across Undergrad, Masters and PhD building in AI - including but not limited to:
- Generative AI & Large Language Models
- AI Agents, Copilots & Workflow Automation
- AI Infrastructure (MLOps, Model Serving, Training)
- Vertical AI (Healthcare, Legal, Finance, Education, Marketing)
- AI + Hardware (Robotics, Edge AI, Embedded Systems)
- Foundational AI Research (Novel Architectures, Safety)
What Participants Get
Every startup accepted into FutureX AI gets a platform to accelerate them:
- A direct path to Campus Fund's Investment Committee, with investment opportunities of up to $1 million
- Access to Google Cloud credits, technical guidance, and hands-on AI tooling via the Google for Startups Cloud Program to build and scale with confidence
- Exclusive workshops and sessions covering AI product building, fundraising for AI startups, and scaling from MVP to market
- The Top 10 get an opportunity to present to Industry veterans on the Grand Finale on 29th May 2026 in Bengaluru
Additional participant benefits will be announced soon.
Who Should Apply
FutureX AI is open to current students (UG, PG, or PhD) and graduates or dropouts from 2023 onwards who hold at least 25% equity in their startup. This edition is laser-focused on AI - whether you're working on foundational models, applying AI in healthcare, climate, fintech, or agritech, building AI-enabled hardware, or solving hard problems with AI at the core. This is your platform.
Applications close 10 April 2026. Apply now https://yourcampusfund.com/futurex/
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