IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), India’s first university-based research park, on Friday launched a ₹1,000-crore deep-tech fund ‘IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I, in partnership with deep-tech focused venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures. The fund will have a base corpus of ₹600 crore, with a green shoe option of ₹400 crore.
The fund aims to build a portfolio of over 25 IP-led, engineering-intensive startups across sectors such as robotics, spacetech, defence technology, semiconductors and medtech. With an average first cheque size of ₹8–10 crore, the investment strategy will follow a dual-stage approach.
Dual-Stage Investment Strategy
The fund will invest in early-stage deep-tech startups at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3–4 to identify high-potential innovations. A portion of the corpus will also be allocated to select later-stage companies that have reached TRL 7–9, with proven product technology, to support accelerated scale-up and market penetration.
Scaling an Ecosystem
IIT Madras is home to India’s largest deep-tech startup ecosystem, with over 525 startups valued at more than $6 billion under the IITM Incubation Cell and sector-specific incubators. As of FY25, these startups have cumulatively created over 11,000 jobs, filed more than 700 patents and attracted ₹12,000 crore in investments. In FY25 alone the IIT Madras incubated more than 100 deep-tech startups.
“We have 100+ deep-tech starts coming out IIT Madras last year. We see active interest in pursuing entrepreneurship in deep tech, so it is incumbent upon us to make funding available,” said Natarajan Malupillai, Group CEO of IITM Research Park. Some of the prominent deep-tech startups incubated at IIT Madras over the years include Ather Energy, Uniphore and Agnikul Cosmos.
Earlier this week, Unicorn India Ventures closed its third fund at ₹1,200 crore. Across its three funds, Unicorn India Ventures has built a portfolio of nearly 50 companies, with a combined valuation of about USD 5 billion.
Under the partnership, IIT Madras and IITMRP will support the fund by connecting it to the alumni network, facilitating access to campus-incubated startups, enabling partnerships with larger companies, and helping portfolio firms find markets. Unicorn India Ventures will manage fundraising, capital deployment and exits.
The fund will raise capital from a global network of limited partners, including family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the IIT global alumni network and large Indian institutions. While deep-tech funds typically have a 7+1 year exit horizon, Malupillai said the IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I is structured with a 10+1+1 year exit period.
“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”,” said Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures.