Masters’ Union announces ‘Bharat Innovators Scholarship’ to back founders from indian villages; Shark Tank Winner Sanjay Modi becomes the first recipient of Bharat Innovators Scholarship at Masters Union

• Up to five scholarships worth ₹30-40 lakh each to be awarded annually
• Total annual outlay for the initiative expected to range between ₹2 crore and ₹2.5 crore

GURUGRAM: Masters’ Union, India’s leading Business and Technology School today introduced the ‘Bharat Innovators Scholarship’, an initiative aimed at backing promising student entrepreneurs from India’s villages and Tier 2/3 cities. The scholarship offers up to 100% tuition waivers, valued between ₹30–40 lakh per student to up to five founders annually across any of Masters’ Union’s Postgraduate Programmes (PGPs).

The total annual outlay for the initiative is expected to range between ₹2 crore and ₹2.5 crore, making it one of India’s most ambitious scholarships that fuse education with entrepreneurship, enabling young founders to complete their degrees while building real companies along the way. Shark Tank winner Sanjay Modi, founder of NearBook is the first recipient of the scholarship for the newly launched PGP Technology and Business Management in Young Leaders Cohort programme of Masters’ Union.

Application process for the Bharat Innovators Scholarship

The scholarship is open to Indian nationals aged 20–30, who are residents of non-metro cities and have either launched a startup or developed a minimum viable product (MVP). Interested applicants can share their pitch decks and founder profiles by writing to admissions@mastersunion.org. Submissions will go through a multi-stage evaluation process led by a dedicated team to identify and select the most promising founders. Masters’ Union receives over 15,000 applications for just 250 seats annually for its PGPs, making it one of most selective post graduate programs in the country with the admission ratio of just 0.01%. 

Selected scholars will gain access to the full breadth of Masters’ Union’s entrepreneurial ecosystem including mentorship from active operators and investors, peer-based learning, and eligibility for grant-based support and early-stage capital through Masters’ Union’s startup initiatives. The scholarship also provides admission into the institution’s Venture Initiation Programme (VIP), a structured in-house venture studio and accelerator. Over the past five years, more than 100 student-led ventures have been incubated through VIP, with ₹22 crore in external funding raised and ₹35 crore in cumulative revenue reported in FY25 alone. Startups from the programme span a wide range of sectors and several have secured institutional capital such as PlaySuper, SeedsAI, Cryptique and Blue Brew.

Pratham Mittal, founder of Masters’ Union said, “There is no shortage of entrepreneurial spirit in India’s smaller towns but what is often missing is structured support, exposure, and capital. The Bharat Innovators Scholarship is our way of giving back to the startup ecosystem by investing in those who don’t always have access to traditional opportunities. We want to shine a light on founders building from the grassroots, and give them a platform to scale alongside India’s best operators, mentors, and peers.”

Shark Tank Winner Sanjay Modi, Founder, NearBook becomes the first recipient

The first recipient of this scholarship is Sanjay Modi, founder of NearBook, who recently secured a deal with Anupam Mittal on Shark Tank India – Campus Special. Sanjay has joined Masters’ Union to build his venture further gaining access to the institution’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including mentorship from leading practitioners such as Manoj Kohli, Chairman, Masters’ Union and former CEO of Bharti Airtel; Rajat Mathur, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley & Master at Masters’ Union and Rajeev Soni, Former Director of Product Management at Gartner. 

He aims to follow the Venture Initiation Programme (VIP) track at Masters’ Union - a structured initiative designed to help students validate ideas, build MVPs, find product-market fit, and raise capital from India’s top early stage venture capitalists. Just a month back, over 150 VCs from the likes of Blume Ventures, JSW Ventures, IvyCap Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Aavishkaar Capital and Gaja Capital  assembled for Masters’ Union Demo Day to evaluate and fund 15 transformative startups from the B-school. 

Sanjay Modi said, “Shark Tank and Anupam Mittal’s early backing gave NearBook its first real push but scaling a startup takes more than visibility. As a founder from a small town, access to mentorship, capital, and a structured ecosystem was always going to be the tougher part. The Bharat Innovators Scholarship at Masters’ Union brings all of that together from hands-on guidance by top operators to a focused founder community and the VIP platform that can fast-track our journey to product-market fit and funding. I am thankful to Pratham Mittal and the team at Masters’ Union for creating this pathway. Being the first recipient of this scholarship is an honour, and I hope more young founders from Bharat take this shot as it could truly change the trajectory of your startup.”

About Masters’ Union:

Masters’ Union is a premium tech & business school based in the corporate district of Gurugram. It was founded in 2020 with the philosophy of hands-on learning where students learn by doing. The leadership behind Masters’ Union consists of graduates from Stanford, Wharton, and IITs and IIMs. Unlike traditional colleges, the faculty at Masters’ Union comprises MDs, CXOs and AI Experts from companies such as Amazon, Apple, IBM, McKinsey, PwC, and KPMG. Additionally, the Institute also brings in faculty from the world’s top-ranked universities such as Oxford & Harvard. Visit www.mastersunion.org