IIT Madras incubated over 100 start-ups in past financial year

Over 50% of the 104 start-ups were founded by the institute’s students, faculty, staff and alumni., says IITM director V. Kamakoti, 

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has incubated more than 100 deep tech start-ups in the past financial year.

In the last 12 years, the institute’s incubation cell has supported 457 deep tech start-ups, collectively valued at ₹50,000 crore. This figure is based on investments raised through venture capitalists. Among them are two unicorns and one company is on the verge of an IPO.

The start-ups were founded by the institute’s faculty, staff, students and alumni. External entrepreneurs have also contributed to them which span a range of critical and emerging sectors, including manufacturing and robotics to space tech, aero and defence, AI biotech and Internet of Things. 

A few of the successful ventures are Ather, Uniphore, Medibuddy, Hyperverge, Stellapps (MooPay), Agnikul, Planys, Detect, Mindgrove, Guvi and Galaxyeye. 

Institute director V. Kamakoti, who announced the achievements on Saturday, said the aim was to achieve the ‘Startup 100 Mission’ set in early 2024. The cell had incubated 104 start-ups during the financial year 2024-25. He said it was made possible by the sector-specific incubators such as Pravarthak, Bioincubator, HTIC MedTech RTBI and the institute’s School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Over 50% of the 104 start-ups were founded by the institute’s students, faculty, staff and alumni. As many as 48% were founded by external entrepreneurs, strengthening and showcasing IITMIC’s diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Mr. Kamakoti said: “The challenge of ‘Start-up Shatam’ (100 start-ups), which translates to incubating one start-up every third day, was taken up on April 1, 2024. The institute has incubated start-ups across a broad spectrum. This is our humble contribution to a Product Nation, a Start-up Nation and Viksit Bharat 2047.”  

The newly incubated start-ups are working in various sectors such as manufacturing, robotics, automotive and batteries, materials, defence and aerospace; AI, ML, AR/VR, blockchain, quantum computing, analytics/SAAS and fintech; health tech; biotech, pharma, agritech; IoT, and cyber physical systems. 

Prabhu Rajagopal, head of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said, “In the coming year we plan to strengthen the mentoring and go-to-market strategies as well as drive the emergence of multinational start-ups”.

The School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which houses IITM’s pre-incubator Nirmaan, hosts 129 pre-venture teams actively working on deep-tech themes, with 113 under the Pratham training phase and 16 under the Akshar pre-incubation phase.