Two Stanford students have launched a $2M startup for students across the country

Two Stanford students announced Monday that they will earn $2 million a year accelerator program called Breakthrough Ventureswhich aims to fund businesses founded by college students and recent graduates across the country.

Roman Scott and Itbaan Nafi started creating an accelerator program after participating in several famous Demo days at Stanford since 2024 and decided to expand the students after success.

“This investment has transformed Bwino from just a seasonal extension into a lifelong partnership with the founders,” Nafi, who is still a professor of engineering at Stanford, told TechCrunch.

Scott received his undergraduate degree from Stanford in 2024 and earned a master’s degree there the following year.

Early last year, the pair teamed up with Raihan Ahmed to lead the startup and then got to work, raising money from the likes of Mayfield and Collide Capital (as well as a slew of Stanford startup alumni) to support the next generation of AI, health, consumer, deep tech, and sustainability companies. Scott said what makes their accelerators different is that they are designed for “student startups and student startups.”

Student programs like this are not new. UC Berkeley offers a similar program called Free Ventures for students seeking seed funding, and MIT has its own Sandbox Innovation Fund. Even Stanford has startup programs, all run or affiliated with the school, such as StartX, LaunchPad, and Cardinal Ventures.

“Students will be happy with how we have gathered many others from different American colleges,” Nafi said of his program, comparing it to the Stanford Treehacks hackathon.

“Breakthrough’s mission is to fill the funding and opportunity gap that exists in many of these natural resources because students have been lacking access to the funding and networks they need to start their careers,” said Scott.

Success will have a hybrid format, with people meeting people in the local energy VC industry, culminating in a Demo Day at Stanford. Those who participate in the program get access to financial aid (up to $ 10,000), credit calculation (through Microsoft and the Nvidia Inception program), legal assistance, advice, “along with the opportunity to receive $ 50,000 to follow at the end of the program,” said Nafi.

“We’ve nailed the student initiative to a T,” Nafi said. “That’s why we provide the resources we do and program like this. Students feel like we’ve earned it, and that’s because we’re students.”

The pair hopes to deploy the funds over three years, with the goal of establishing at least 100 companies. Overall, Mr. Nafi hopes that the fund will help grow Bwinolo into “a hub for Gen Z entrepreneurship and thought leadership,” especially given the anxiety many young people feel about their financial future.

Applications for the latest batch open today.

“We hope that by supporting young entrepreneurs, we can raise as many stories as possible to encourage many others around the world to use the tools and knowledge around them to do business to change their communities, and to find financial stability for themselves and their families,” said Nafi.

This section has been changed to correct the name of one of the investment companies.