Two Stanford students announced on Monday that they have raised $2 million for an accelerator program called Breakthrough Ventures. The program aims to fund businesses founded by college students and recent graduates nationwide.
Roman Scott and Itbaan Nafi began building the accelerator after hosting a series of popular Demo Days at Stanford starting in 2024. They decided to expand the initiative after seeing students achieve success. “This fundraise turns Breakthrough from just being a seasonal accelerator into a lifelong partnership with our founders,” said Nafi, who is still a master’s candidate at Stanford. Scott received his undergraduate degree from Stanford in 2024 and earned a master’s degree there the following year.
Early last year, the duo tapped Raihan Ahmed to lead the accelerator. They then began officially fundraising from firms like Mayfair and Collide Capital, as well as a group of Stanford founder alumni, to back the next generation of AI, health, consumer, deep tech, and sustainability companies. Scott said what makes their accelerator different is that it is specifically built “for student founders by student founders.”
Student programs like this are not new. UC Berkeley offers a similar program called Free Ventures for students seeking pre-seed funding, and MIT has its own Sandbox Innovation Fund. Stanford itself has accelerator programs run by or affiliated with the school, such as StartX, LaunchPad, and Cardinal Ventures. “Students have enjoyed how we’ve brought together so many others from different American colleges,” Nafi said of his program, comparing it to Stanford’s Treehacks hackathon.
“Breakthrough’s purpose is to fill in the funding and opportunity gap that exists in many of these ecosystems because students have historically lacked access to capital and the networks required to launch their entrepreneurial pursuits,” Scott added.
Breakthrough will operate on a hybrid model, with in-person meetups at local venture capital firms and a culminating Demo Day at Stanford. Participants gain access to grant funding of up to $100,000, compute credits through Microsoft and the Nvidia Inception program, legal support, Waymo ride credits, and mentorship from figures like Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana. They also receive the opportunity for a $50,000 follow-on investment at the program’s conclusion.
“We’ve nailed the student-founder experience to a T,” Nafi said. “Hence why we offer the resources we do and have structured the program in this way. Students really feel like we get them, and that’s because we are students.”
The pair hopes to deploy the fund over three years, aiming to incubate at least 100 companies. Nafi hopes this fund will help grow Breakthrough into “the hub for Gen Z entrepreneurship and thought leadership,” particularly given the economic anxiety many young people feel.
Applications for the latest cohort open today. “We hope that by supporting young entrepreneurs, we’re able to uplift as many stories as possible to then inspire many more across the world to use the tools and knowledge around them to pursue entrepreneurship,” Nafi said. “This is not only to change their communities, but also to gain economic stability for themselves and their families.”