Atomic Fellowship

⚡ Quick Facts

• Grant Amount: $4,000 no-strings-attached funding
• Follow-on Potential: Additional $40K-$100K investment opportunity
• Application Review: Every application read twice by the gradCapital team
• Current Goal: Funding 10+ new projects in next 6 months
• Target: 3rd/4th year students, recent graduates, dropouts
• Apply: Via Airtable
• Contact: sethi@gradcapital.in

👀 Mission

The Atomic Fellowship empowers students to pursue independent science and engineering projects outside traditional academic constraints. The program supports engineering-heavy ideas that show potential for real-world impact, whether software-based or hardware-focused. Having funded approximately 10 successful projects in the past 12 months, the fellowship prioritizes innovative ideas from students eager to build and experiment.

The only requirements are a novel idea and the drive to make it real. Fellows receive not just funding, but also access to mentorship from industry experts and the opportunity to learn from the best in their fields.

💰 What The Fellowship Funds

• Independent science and engineering projects

• Both individual and team initiatives

• Projects with potential for:

  • Publishable results
  • Startup opportunities
  • Career advancement

• Global projects, both research and commercial applications

🏆 Featured Fellows and Projects

1. Arctus.space

• Founder: Shreepoorna S Rao
• Background: Final year at IIT Madras, Aerodynamics Club
• Project: 2m wingspan drone
• Outcome: Successful startup post-graduation

2. Biocompute

• Founder: Anagha Rajesh
• Background: Final year at BITS, IISER Bhopal
• Project: DNA-based hard-drive technology
• Read More: Project Blog

3. Flynovate

• Founder: Akshat Bhatia
• Background: Final year at Thapar
• Project: Automatic solar panel cleaning systems
• Status: Successfully pivoted to new innovations

4. Armatrix

• Background: IIT Kanpur project
• Project: Mid-air tank refueling system
• Status: Evolved into commercial venture
• Read More: Project Blog

📝 Application Process

1. Submit through Airtable
2. Project evaluation by gradCapital team (each application read twice)
3. Grant disbursement
4. Access to tech credits worth $1M+

⭐ Fellowship Benefits

• $4,000 no-strings-attached initial grant
• Access to $1M+ in tech credits
• Potential follow-on investment ($40K-$100K)
• Expert mentorship network
• Support from gradCapital network

✅ Eligibility

• School students
• College students
• Recent graduates (within 2 years)
• Dropouts
• Team applications welcome

👥 Leadership Team

• Abhishek Sethi - Co-founder & CEO
• Prateek Behera - Co-founder & COO
• Kshitij Khandelwal - Visiting Partner

📚 Additional Resources

• Program Updates: gradCapital CEO's Updates
• Twitter: @gradcapital
• Apply: gradcapital.in/atomicfellow