VenturEdu Announces Mentors For 14 Month Venture Programme

VenturEdu, India’s first residential venture-building school, has announced an eminent panel of over 55 investors, founders, CXOs and academicians who will mentor and co-build startups as part of its flagship 14-month venture-building programme.

The mentor cohort includes Pramod Arora, CEO, PVR INOX; Sanjay Guha, former President, Coca-Cola UK and Ireland; Sorabh Agarwal, Co-founder, AngelBay; Ashish Nayyar, Co-Head, India, OakNorth; Suraj Jain, Expedia, along with senior leaders from global technology, consumer, financial services and venture capital firms.

VenturEdu is India’s first-of-its-kind venture school that combines structured learning, hands-on venture building and early-stage capital. The residential programme is designed for first-time founders, early-career professionals and next-generation business leaders who have strong ideas but limited access to execution expertise, mentorship and funding.

Unlike traditional incubators or classroom-based entrepreneurship courses, VenturEdu follows a co-building model in which mentors work closely with founders across the full venture lifecycle, from idea validation and product-market fit to team building, go-to-market strategy and fundraising.

“Mentorship is often the difference between ideas that stall and companies that scale,” said Kulmani Rana, Founder, VenturEdu. “The leaders joining us have built and scaled businesses themselves. They understand capital discipline, leadership under pressure and the realities of growth. Their role is not just to advise, but to act as co-pilots for first-time founders as they make high-stakes decisions.”

The mentors will engage with founders through VenturEdu’s V-Unit Mentorship Model, participating in candidate selection, curriculum design, venture reviews, execution guidance and investment discussions throughout the 14-month programme.

Several of the mentors are also investors in Fibonacci X, the holding company behind VenturEdu, and have previously supported startups through its accelerator platform. The expanded engagement reflects a shared belief that India needs deeper, more hands-on support at the idea and pre-seed stage, where most ventures struggle due to gaps in execution capability and early capital access.

“Our focus was on bringing together operators and investors who have personally scaled businesses, built leadership teams and deployed capital. That combination is still rare in most entrepreneurship programmes, particularly at the idea stage,” Rana added.

The fully residential programme offers founders 24/7 access to legal, technology, design and growth experts, along with structured inputs from Fortune 500 executives and experienced venture investors. Participants also gain curated access to a network of over 100 venture capital firms. A dedicated accelerator fund will provide preferential investment to the top 30 per cent of each cohort.

On-campus infrastructure includes a full-service marketing agency, production studio and a two-month paid immersion with Series-A and growth-stage startups, enabling founders to gain real-world operating exposure alongside building their own ventures.

VenturEdu said it will track success through venture outcomes, including the number of startups achieving early revenues and securing external funding within 6 to 12 months, and longer-term progress to Series A and beyond. Alumni will continue to receive access to the mentor network, capital ecosystem and execution infrastructure even after completing the programme.