IIT-Madras Research Park, Unicorn Ventures launch ₹600-crore deep tech fund

Indian Institute of Technology Madras Research Park (IITMRP), in collaboration with Unicorn India Ventures, on Friday announced the launch of a ₹600-crore fund to support deep tech startups across India.

Called IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund I, it will have ₹400 crore ‘greenshoe option’, a clause that allows underwriters sell 15 per cent more shares than planned if the demand was high. In the initial phase, it plans to invest in over 25 startups that range from robotics, space tech, defence tech, and semiconductors.

Announcing this at the inauguration of Entrepreneurship Summit 2026, V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said the fund would be operational in about three or four months after all the necessary approvals were obtained. The School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he said, would start offering programmes and courses soon and develop course materials so as to provide a fillip to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Startups not only incubated within IITMRP but from across the country will be able to seek funding, Dr. Kamakoti added. The fund aims to target the ‘valley of death’ curve, the phase in the life of a startup between start of operations and generation of revenue, and convert it to ‘valley of hope’.

IIT-Madras was also developing an e-plane capable of vertical take-off and landing within a 5,000-square-foot-space making it an ideal candidate for initiatives like air ambulance. The project was expected to reach the commercial stage in about a year’s time, he added.

Natarajan Malupillai, Group CEO, IITMRP, said the fund would have a 10+2 years tenure and was the first step towards creating a steady stream of startups reaching IPO level. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations, IIT-Madras, said that the venture would attempt to draw upon the expertise of the institute’s 70,000-odd alumni.

Bhaskar Majumdar, founder and managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said nearly two-thirds of the 50-odd companies that his company has invested in were from tier two or tier three cities.

Talking about the challenges he had to overcome, Swapnil Jain, co-founder, Ather Energy, said the startup environment was looking more promising now than it was a decade ago when he started his company. He said of late, there was an observable shift in interest of investors from e-commerce to deep tech.

Richa Agrawal, Faculty Advisor, Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT-Madras, Sathyanarayana N. Gummadi, Dean-Students, IIT-Madras, Atharva Kokate, Student Core, E-Summit, and Harin Raam A., Student Manager, E-Summit, spoke.