IIT-Madras and Unicorn India Ventures launch ₹600-crore “IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I” at a function held in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on Friday, February 6, 2026. Looking on are (from left) Natarajan Malupillai, Group CEO of IITM Research Park; Swapnil Jain, co-founder and CEO, Ather energy; V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras; and Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures.
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RAGHUNATHAN SR
The Indian Institute of Technology – Madras Research Park (IITM RP) has formally launched its ₹600 crore IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund. The deep-tech-focused venture capital (VC) fund has selected Unicorn India Ventures as the fund manager.
The fund, which will also have a ₹400 crore greenshoe option, will distribute capital in the range of ₹5-10 crore.
Speaking to businessline, Natarajan Malupillai, Group CEO, IITM Research Park and IITM Incubation Cell, said that the fund will support start-ups working in frontier domains aligned with India’s long-term strategic needs including defence, climate tech, quantum computing and semiconductors, among others.
“Unlike incubator grants, a dedicated VC fund will provide much larger cheque sizes, ensuring that founders can continue to focus on product development and innovation without having to worry about fundraising,” he said.
Malupillai added that the fund will now require ‘SEBI approvals’ which should take about 3-4 months. He added that the fund investors would involve both IIT Madras alumni and other HNIs and institutional investors.
As for the partnership with Unicorn India Ventures, he said that the VC firm was selected due to its expertise in the deep-tech space and their proven track record in terms of fund performance metrics.
How the fund works
The fund will deploy 60 per cent of the investable corpus to build the initial portfolio and reserve 40 per cent for follow-on rounds. The fund intends to support 25-30 start-ups and according to Malupillai, while the fund will focus on start-ups within the IIT M intubation system, it will not restrict itself to it.
The fund will employ a multi-stage approach investing the proceeds dynamically in companies at various levels of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) – a standardised nine-level measurement system used to assess the maturity of a technology.
IITM RP had earlier initiated plans to launch the fund at a size of ₹500 crore, but according to Malupillai, anticipating support from Research Development and Innovation fund, the size has been extended.
Speaking at the launch of the fund here on Friday, V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, emphasised the need for patience and perseverance in Deep-tech and said that the institute will not pressurise start-ups with knee jerk reactions and will look to mentor them over the long-term.
Beyond the fund, IIT RP has incubated over 500 start-ups so far with a combined valuation of around $6 billion.
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Published on February 6, 2026
