The Indian Institute of Expertise Madras Analysis Park (IITMRP) and enterprise capital agency Unicorn India Ventures launched a 6 billion rupee ($66.3 million) fund on Friday, aiming to again early-stage deep know-how startups in sectors crucial to India’s strategic pursuits.
The fund, titled ‘IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund I’, will concentrate on mental property-led startups in robotics, area know-how, defence, and semiconductors.
The announcement, made on the institute’s Entrepreneurship Summit 2026, comes as India seeks to cut back its reliance on know-how imports and construct home capabilities in high-tech manufacturing. The initiative aligns with the Union Funds 2026, which launched the ‘India Semiconductor Mission 2.0’ to broaden capabilities past fabrication into gear and design IP, mirroring the fund’s concentrate on strengthening indigenous technical sovereignty.
The fund features a greenshoe possibility of Rs 400 crore and plans to spend money on roughly 25 startups initially. The companions stated the fund is designed as “affected person capital” with a lifecycle of as much as 12 years.
Earlier this week, the federal government formally expanded the definition of deep tech startups. The Division for Promotion of Trade and Inner Commerce (DPIIT) now recognises deep tech entities for as much as 20 years, double the earlier restrict, and raised the turnover cap to $33.1 million, acknowledging the lengthy gestation durations and excessive capital necessities inherent to the sector.
The fund may have a mean first cheque measurement of round Rs 8-10 crore. A majority of the portfolio shall be sourced from startups incubated at IIT Madras, with the rest chosen from the broader Indian deep tech ecosystem.
Market information signifies rising investor confidence within the phase, regardless of world financial headwinds. Based on Tracxn, Indian deep tech startups raised $1.57 billion throughout 265 offers in 2025, up from $1.24 billion the earlier 12 months, with traders writing bigger cheques for high-conviction bets.
“India’s deep tech ecosystem is at an inflection level. We’ve got demonstrated that with out pouring in billions of {dollars}, we will construct mission-driven, globally aggressive and innovation-led startups from right here. This initiative has given us the required impetus to additional speed up the pace of innovation at IITMRP. We’re eager to align with a few of the most cutting-edge deep tech startups and Unicorn India as companions will give us a headstart to form up India’s deep tech future for the world,” Natarajan “Nat” Malupillai, CEO of IITM Analysis Park, shared in a press word.
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