IIT Madras Research Park teams up with Unicorn India Ventures to launch Rs 600 crore deeptech fund for startups

IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), India’s first university-based research park, has partnered with DeepTech VC Fund Unicorn India Ventures to launch a Rs 600 crore deeptech fund.

Notably, the fund will also have an additional Rs 400 crore as greenshoe option.

IITM Research Park is home to several global R&D labs, Centers of Excellence (CoE), and Incubators. IITMRP along with the IITM Incubation Cell has played a pivotal role in translational research, commercialisation, and nurturing cutting-edge deeptech startups across spacetech, communications, climatetech, EVs, semiconductor, quantum, and defensetech.

To further strengthen the innovation ecosystem and accelerate the growth journey for the startups, IIT Madras Research Park has selected Unicorn India Ventures as the Fund Manager for the deeptech fund.

The fund will look to build a portfolio of 25+ companies in IP-led, engineering heavy startups in sectors like robotics, spacetech, deftech, semicon, medtech, etc. that align with national strategic interests.

With an average first investment size of Rs 8-10 crore, the investment strategy will follow a dual stage approach. The fund will be used to invest in early-stage deeptech startups that have reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3-4 with an aim to identify high-potential innovations to nurture them through the initial commercialisation hurdles.

The fund will also support them with capital at early mid-stage where they have reached TRL 5–7 to accelerate the development of concept proven technologies.

A part of the corpus would be assigned to select early late-stage companies that reach TRL 7–9 with a proven product tech and need support with accelerated scale up and market penetration.

Dr Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Director of IIT Madras and the man behind the Shakti micro-processor, said, “Science and technology will play a crucial role in the growth story and towards India becoming Viksit Bharat 2047, focusing on technology sovereignty, AI, semiconductors, defence-tech and quantum technology. The need of the hour to reduce reliance on technology imports and strengthen indigenous capabilities. IIT Madras has been in forefront of this wave for over a decade and this Fund is the next logical step for us.”

Natarajan Manjulai, Group CEO of IITM Research Park, said, “India’s deep-tech ecosystem is at a pivotal moment, driven by supportive policies, sustained R&D investments, and strong entrepreneurial aspiration among our youth. This fund will accelerate the translation of research into globally competitive startups while strengthening India’s innovation & entrepreneurship. We are pleased to partner with Unicorn India Ventures to advance India’s deep-tech leadership--imagining, designing, and building in India for the world.”

Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “As an active deep tech investor, we have already built a portfolio of nearly 30 companies and this new fund in partnership with IITM comes at the right time as we have met numerous innovative startups in last 2 years. India has the talent, capital and patient investors like us and IITM to pool in our collective knowledge, resources and industry connections to help the next generation of deep tech founders.”

The fund will deploy 60% of the investable corpus to build the initial portfolio and reserve 40% for follow-on rounds to ensure that there is enough “Patient Capital” to back winners through the “Valley of Death” stages.

Unicorn India Ventures said it will use its ability to raise money beyond the main fund and create a co-investment setup so that its portfolio companies always have enough capital.

The fund will lead the process of raising money from IITM alumni and from its global network of investors, including family offices, ultra high net worth individuals, and large Indian institutions.