CHENNAI: The IIT-Madras Research Park (IITMRP) on Friday partnered with Unicorn India Ventures to launch a Rs 600 crore deep-tech fund titled IIT-Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund I, with an additional Rs 400-crore greenshoe option.
The fund that focuses on early-stage deep-tech ventures will initially back over 25 startups. While a significant portion of the portfolio will be sourced from IIT-M's innovation ecosystem, the remaining investments will come from the Indian deep-tech landscape.
IITMRP and Unicorn India Ventures will jointly manage the portfolio construction and strategic decision-making.
The fund will have an average first cheque size of Rs 8–10 crore, and will primarily invest in startups at Technology Readiness Levels 3 and 4.
About 60 per cent of the corpus will be deployed for initial investments, while the remainder will be reserved for follow-on rounds.
Structured as a 10-year fund with a two-year extension, it will operate with a long-term, patient-capital approach.
The announcement was made by IIT-M Director V Kamakoti during the inauguration of the 11th edition of the Entrepreneurship Summit 2026, the annual summit of the Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell).
The fund was launched in the presence of Swapnil Jain, co-founder of IIT-M-incubated Ather Energy and an alumnus of the institute, who was also a former member of E-Cell.
"The need of the hour is to reduce reliance on technology imports and strengthen indigenous capabilities. Areas such as AI, semiconductors, defence technologies and quantum computing require focused and patient capital," Kamakoti said, adding that IIT-M had been at the forefront of deep-tech innovation for over a decade.
Elaborating on the fund, IITM Research Park CEO Natarajan Malupillai said India's deep-tech ecosystem was at an inflection point.
"We have demonstrated that globally competitive, innovation-led startups can be built from India without excessive capital. This initiative gives us the impetus to further accelerate innovation and partner with cutting-edge deep-tech startups," he said.
E-Summit 2026 will host pitch sessions offering on-the-spot investments, a startup expo showcasing over 80 ventures, and multiple conclaves catering to aspiring founders, early innovators and fundraising-ready startups.
Organisers said the summit is expected to draw more than 800 founders, 50 investors and over 2,000 students from 200 colleges.