IIT Madras, IIT Madras Research Park & Unicorn India Ventures announce first close of IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I at Rs 450 Cr in Hon’ble FM’s presence, deploys Rs 55 crore in 4 deep tech startups.
● First close of Rs 450 crore reached in record time of 3 months
● Funding announced in Quanastra, Hathor Rocket, Triolt Energy and Carbelim
● IIT M Unicorn Frontier Fund was announced in Feb 2026 with a corpus of Rs 1000 crore (including Rs 400 crore in greenshoe option)
● Final close expected by Dec 2026
● With the first close reached, the fund will continue to invest in IP-led deeptech, engineering-heavy startups, with an aim to build a portfolio of 25 startups
● Majority of the portfolio will be focused on early-stage deep tech companies that have reached TRL 3 – 4
● The average cheque size per investment is INR 15-25 Crore per startup
● The fund is being backed by leading alumni from IIT Madras (IITM) and prominent family offices apart from institutions, corporates and banks
IIT Madras, IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), India’s first university-based research park and a leading force behind India’s deep tech transformation and Unicorn India Ventures, India’s leading DeepTech VC today announced first close of its Rs 1000 crore fund at Rs 450 Cr in the presence of Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The first close has been achieved in a record 3 months after receiving SEBI’s approval. The final close is expected by December 2026.
Commenting on the first close, Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Director of IIT Madras said, “At IIT Madras, we have built an ecosystem that has nurtured several deep tech companies who have consistently demonstrated TRL growth and with a joint fund with best in class deep tech investors Unicorn India, we are now confident that these companies will not only get access to patient capital but also strategic growth guidance as well. With Unicorn India’s capability and depth, we have reached the first close in record three months, which is a feat and we are confident that as we build a high potential portfolio with this fund, we will give India some of the best deep tech startups as we have done in the past.” The fund also announced deploying nearly Rs 55 crore in 4 deep tech startups marking a significant milestone in its efforts to strengthen India’s deeptech ecosystem.
The four deeptech startups are:
Hathor (Chennai-based spacetech startup building specialized semi-cryogenic and cryogenic rocket engines for small and medium satellite launch vehicle companies)
Quanstra (Delhi-based quantum deeptech startup developing single-photon detection systems and advanced quantum instrumentation for research and emerging industrial quantum applications)
Triolt Energy (Developing high performance Lithium Ion battery cells optimised for drones and fast charging electric mobility applications)
Carbelim (Developing bio-integrated carbon capture and air purification systems using proprietary microalgae technology)
The Fund will focus on six high-conviction verticals where India holds a structural “right to win” globally:
• Defense Technology (import-substitution)
• Space Technology (space-qualified hardware at 1/10th global cost),
• Semiconductors (fabless design and IP ownership)
• Manufacturing Technology, Robotics & Automation
• AI Infrastructure/GenAI (sovereign enterprise AI),
• Health Tech ( for providing healthcare for bottom of pyramid)
Every investment would be screened for global export potential, strategic import substitution, and sovereign technological advantage before capital is committed.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “India is undoubtedly entering a defining decade for deep tech startups and is moving from promise to scale. As investors, it's an honour for us to partner with IITM & IIT Madras Research Park, which have been the backbone of deep tech innovation in India. Through our partnership with IIT Madras, we aim to provide early founders the capital and strategic support required to scale and build globally competitive companies from India. With the ₹450 crore first close and our four investments already made, we intend to continue building a portfolio of high-potential deep-tech ventures that can create significant technological and economic value.”
The presence of the Hon’ble Finance Minister makes this milestone particularly significant, as it reflects the growing recognition of deep-tech as a critical driver of India’s next phase of innovation and economic growth with a focus on tech sovereignty, he added.
Natarajan Malupillai, Group CEO, IITM Research Park, Incubation Cell & RTBI said, “India has the scientific and engineering talent to build world-class technologies. IIT Madras Research Park and the Incubation Cell has pioneered translational research and innovation for large companies and nurtured Deeptech startups. As the entrepreneurial ambition grows, we see a need to support them with right-sized, patient capital. The IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund-I brings long-term capital into the IIT Madras innovation ecosystem, helping scale-up of IP-led, globally competitive companies from India. Beyond individual startups, our ambition is to strengthen India’s technology capabilities, build greater self-reliance in critical sectors and position India as a source of frontier technologies for the world.”
With the first close reached, the fund will continue to invest in IP-led deeptech, engineering-heavy startups, with an aim to build a portfolio of 25 startups. The fund is being backed by leading alumni from IIT Madras (IITM) and prominent family offices and is targeting a final close by the end of this year wherein institutional investors and banks will join in. Unicorn India Ventures, as the fund manager will leverage its ability to mobilise capital beyond the primary fund corpus and build a robust co-investment engine to ensure that portfolio companies are never capital starved.
About IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’ The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 18 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 650 faculty and 10,000 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.
Recognized as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) in 2019, IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for the Seven consecutive year in India Ranking 2025 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for 10 consecutive years – from 2016 to 2025.
In 2023, IIT Madras became the first IIT to establish an international Campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania called 'IIT Madras Zanzibar.
About IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP)
IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) – promoted by IIT Madras - is India’s first university-based research park, created to bridge the gap between academia and industry and accelerate deep-tech innovation. Spread over more than 11 acres with over 1.2 million square feet of workspace, it hosts 250+ research-driven companies, global corporations, 15 centres of excellence and is home to 500+ startups working across multiple sectors and technologies. It fosters collaboration by providing advanced infrastructure, laboratories, and direct access to world-class faculty and research scholars from IIT Madras for translating academic research into commercial technologies and products.
Know more here: https://respark.iitm.ac.in/
View our latest Annual Report here: https://respark.iitm.ac.in/view-report.html
About Unicorn India Ventures
Started in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi, Unicorn India Ventures is a deep tech focused early-stage fund that invests in emerging and visionary startups. Unicorn India Ventures launched its first fund with a corpus of Rs 100 crore and invested in 17 companies like SmartCoin, Open Bank, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack, FutureCure to mention some. The Fund has emerged as the best performing early-stage fund in India with the stellar exits provided by the fund to its LPs. Fund II is a Rs 300 Cr fund launched in 2020 that has invested in 20 companies so far like Gamerji, Probus, Daalchini, Windo, Finsall. Most of the portfolio is scaling up fast and has had several uprounds.
Unicorn India Ventures has closed its Rs 1200 Cr Fund III surpassing the target of Rs 1000 Crore. With this Fund, UIV aims to build a portfolio of 20 startups that are focused mostly in the deep tech sector that includes semiconductor, space tech, and medical diagnostics apart from AI infrastructure and India digital platforms. Companies like Netrasemi, Kluisz, OrbitAID, TakeMe2Space, Aurassure, EyeROV, QubeHealth to name a few.
Recently, IIT-Madras, IITMRP and Unicorn India Ventures launched Rs 1000 crore “IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I”. UIV is a fund with engineering DNA and has been backing deeptech companies for over a decade. The Fund has investors across the globe represented by institutions, family offices and UHNIs. The Fund has a global viewpoint while sourcing companies throughout the country.
