In 2022, four friends from SRM – Sudharsan V, Raghul Jagannathan, Godwin Immanuel, and Saiganesh V decided to fix what biotech education kept getting wrong. They set out to build something that didn’t exist yet – a proper college for biosciences that actually helped students build a career. By 2023, they had raised ₹1.5 crore in seed funding and had a goal to make sure no biotech student ever felt lost again. They were addressing a major gap – the fact that most biotech graduates had no clear career opportunities even after completing their degrees.
A Problem No One Was Solving
Growing up in the small town of Theni, Sudharsan V. didn’t dream of becoming a doctor or engineer like most kids around him. “I was obsessed with Pokémon,” he says, breaking into a grin. “But while others were playing the game, I kept wondering if can I make my own Pokémon? Can science do that?” This wasn’t just a childhood phase. By the time he was in 9th or 10th grade, Sudharsan had already decided he wanted to study Genetic Engineering. It wasn’t a common path in his town – in fact, most people didn’t know what it meant.
“In Theni, if you told people you were going to study genetics, it sounded too fancy, too out of reach,” he recalls. “But I didn’t mind. I was curious. I wanted to learn how to create life – or at least understand it deeply.” He even started a personal blog back in school, where he wrote about genetics and explored ideas. “Eventually I realised I couldn’t exactly make Pokémon,” he laughs. “But I could build tools and organisms and that became even more exciting.”
Post graduation in 2018, Sudharsan, along with with friend, Raghul, Godwin, and Saiganesh, founded Cambrionics – an initiative aimed at teaching biology to school students through microscope sessions and workshops. They often had biotechnology students interning with them.
That’s when one conversation changed everything. “A girl who was in her third year of biotech came up to us and said she wanted to quit,” Sudharsan recalls. “She told us, ‘I’ve been studying this for three years, but I still don’t know what biotech actually is. I’m scared I won’t be able to build a career, even if I finish this degree. ’” That moment stuck with them.
“If someone has the courage to walk away from a degree after three years, just because they don’t see a future in it – that’s not a personal problem. That’s a broken system,” he says. It made them question their own path. All four co-founders had studied biotechnology and faced similar struggles – unclear career paths, outdated curriculums, and a lack of real world readiness.
“We realised we shouldn’t be teaching school kids biology. We needed to be solving this bigger problem – helping biotech graduates actually build careers.” That’s when the idea started taking shape – What if they built a college aligned with what the biotech industry needed? A college that was virtual, accessible, and future facing.
“I didn’t want to build another coaching centre,” Sudharsan clarifies. “I wanted to build a real college – one that actually prepared people to work in biotech, and not just get degrees for the sake of it.”
Building Bversity
In 2022, four friends who shared the same vision from day one – Sudharsan, Raghul Jagannathan, Godwin Immanuel, and Saiganesh V came together to build and solve for this. The four of them pooled their savings, experience, and – perhaps most importantly – belief. And they launched Bversity. They weren’t trying to replicate traditional colleges – they were trying to fix what they lacked.
“Biotech today is not just about pipettes and lab coats,” he explains. “It’s also about AI, data science, marketing, business, regulation. You don’t need a PhD to thrive anymore. But our education system hasn’t caught up.”
Reimagining What a College Could Be
So they started from scratch. Bversity offers hybrid programs – like a 1-year PG in Bioinformatics and a 16-month MBA in Biotech Business Management 1 that blend online learning with hands-on projects, practical labs, real-world assignments, and industry mentorship.
They came up with a 5 day immersive experience called SEED Week – where students engage in CXO talks, hackathons, workshops, and live industry challenges. “It’s intense,” Sudharsan says. “It pushes you to collaborate, think on your feet, solve real problems.”
Admissions are highly selective – only the top 5% of applicants get in – and every course is designed to make students job-ready from day one. “We didn’t want to churn out more degree holders,” he says. “We wanted to train problem solvers. People who could walk into a biotech firm and start contributing from day one.”
What they’ve also managed to do is carve out a space that most colleges miss – giving students real career pathways after their biotech degrees. “We realised a lot of students finish their masters and still don’t know where to go next. There’s a huge vacuum there,” Sudharsan says.
With Bversity’s programs, students aren’t left hanging after graduation – they’re stepping into internships, research roles, and biotech startups with confidence. The focus isn’t just on learning, but on building a bridge to what comes after. “That’s where we saw the biggest gap – and that’s the niche we stepped into.”
Recognition, Support, and Growth
In 2023, Bversity won the title of “EdTech Startup of the Year” – a milestone that helped validate what they were building. In 2022, they raised ₹1.5 crore in seed funding from Nativelead and Suresh Sambandam, Founder of Kissflow – a big vote of confidence.
Currently, Bversity works with 20+ global universities and biotech companies, helping students secure internships and placements across the industry. Their programs are known for being skill-focused, immersive, and extremely relevant to today’s biotech landscape.
The Bigger Dream
“There’s still so much to be done,” he says. “India is sitting on a goldmine of biotech potential. But if we don’t build the right talent pool, we’re going to miss it.”
He aims to make Bversity a global name in bioscience education – one that trains visionary biotech leaders, not just employees. And if you ask him what still drives him, he smiles. “That same curiosity,” he says. “That kid in Theni who wanted to create Pokémon? He’s still here. Only now, he’s trying to create scientists.”
