IIT Madras & Unicorn India Ventures launch Rs 600-crore deeptech fund
IIT Madras and the Unicorn India Ventures on Thursday announced the launch of a Rs 600-crore deeptech fund, with an additional Rs 400 crore greenshoe option, aimed at backing early-stage, IP-led startups in strategic sectors.
The IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I will invest in engineering-heavy startups in domains such as robotics, space technology, defence tech, semiconductors, and medical technology.
In a statement, the fund said that its first investments will see cheque sizes of Rs 8-10 crore in over 25 startups. Most investments will be at an early stage, targeting deeptech firms that have reached Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3-4, where the core technology has been validated with potential commercialisation opportunities.
Structured as a 10-year fund with a two-year extension option, around 60% of the corpus will be used to build the initial portfolio, while 40% will be reserved for follow-on rounds to help companies overcome the “valley of death.”
The valley of death is when startups have launched operations and are burning the initial capital without generating enough sustainable revenues.
The fund will also back select companies at later stages — up to TRL 7-9 — where products are ready for scaling and market expansion.
Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Director, IIT Madras, said “The need of the hour is to reduce reliance on technology imports and strengthen indigenous capabilities. IIT Madras has been at the forefront of this for over a decade and this fund is the next logical step for us."
Unicorn India Ventures, the VC firm which will manage the fund, said it will also tap co-investors and its global limited partner network to raise the capital.
A large portion of the investments will be in startups emerging out of the IIT Madras ecosystem, including those incubated at the IIT Madras Research Park and the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, the institute said in a statement .
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures said, ``India has the talent, the capital, and patient investors like us and IITM to pool in our collective knowledge, resources, and industry connections to help the next generation of deeptech founders.
"Unicorn already has a portfolio of nearly 30 companies and this new fund in partnership with IITMRP comes at the right time," he added.
The IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I will invest in engineering-heavy startups in domains such as robotics, space technology, defence tech, semiconductors, and medical technology.
In a statement, the fund said that its first investments will see cheque sizes of Rs 8-10 crore in over 25 startups. Most investments will be at an early stage, targeting deeptech firms that have reached Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3-4, where the core technology has been validated with potential commercialisation opportunities.
Structured as a 10-year fund with a two-year extension option, around 60% of the corpus will be used to build the initial portfolio, while 40% will be reserved for follow-on rounds to help companies overcome the “valley of death.”
The valley of death is when startups have launched operations and are burning the initial capital without generating enough sustainable revenues.
The fund will also back select companies at later stages — up to TRL 7-9 — where products are ready for scaling and market expansion.
Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Director, IIT Madras, said “The need of the hour is to reduce reliance on technology imports and strengthen indigenous capabilities. IIT Madras has been at the forefront of this for over a decade and this fund is the next logical step for us."
Unicorn India Ventures, the VC firm which will manage the fund, said it will also tap co-investors and its global limited partner network to raise the capital.
A large portion of the investments will be in startups emerging out of the IIT Madras ecosystem, including those incubated at the IIT Madras Research Park and the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, the institute said in a statement .
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures said, ``India has the talent, the capital, and patient investors like us and IITM to pool in our collective knowledge, resources, and industry connections to help the next generation of deeptech founders.
"Unicorn already has a portfolio of nearly 30 companies and this new fund in partnership with IITMRP comes at the right time," he added.
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