IIT Madras-backed Unicorn India Ventures raises ₹450 crore; to complete the fund at ₹1,000 crore by December

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IIT Madras, its Research Park (IITMRP), and venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures have announced a first close of ₹450 crore in three months. The final close of a ₹1,000 crore fund, dedicated to advanced technology startups, is expected by December, 2026.

The fund also announced that it is deploying nearly ₹55 crore in four deep tech startups, marking a significant milestone in its efforts to strengthen India’s deep-tech ecosystem. 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.’’

In partnership with IIT Madras, the fund was aiming to provide early founders the capital and strategic support required to scale and build globally competitive companies from India, he said. “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,’’ Mr. Majumdar added while speaking at IITMAA Sangam 2026 here on Saturday.

Hathor, Chennai-based spacetech startup, Quanstra, a Delhi-based quantum deeptech startup, Triolt Energy, developing high-performance Lithium Ion battery cells optimised for drones and Carbelim, developing bio-integrated carbon capture and air purification systems are the four deep-tech ventures who received funding.

The Fund will focus on six high-conviction verticals where India holds a structural right to win globally: ⁠Defense Technology, ⁠Space Technology, ⁠Semiconductors (fabless design and IP ownership), ⁠Manufacturing Technology, Robotics & Automation, ⁠⁠AI Infrastructure/GenAI and ⁠Health Tech.

Speaking at the event, Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Education, said India’s electricity generation capacity has grown from 249 GW in 2014 to 552 GW today, including around 310 GW of non-fossil capacity, while the grid has recently managed a peak demand of 281 GW, with nearly one-third met through renewable energy.

“This growing infrastructure is enabling technological self-reliance, domestic manufacturing, and innovation. IIT Madras exemplifies this transformation with 560 startups, including 109 incubated in 2025–26, a collective valuation of ₹80,000 crore, 472 patents, and ₹950 crore in alumni contributions,’’ the Minister said.

Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist & Co-founder, Zoho Corporation, said, “National security today is entirely tech-driven, and critical foreign dependencies can be weaponised against us.’’ In modern conflicts, nations leveraging an 80% to 90% dominance in commercial drones can deploy $50,000 military units against $50 million defense systems, a 1,000x cost disparity that underscores the power of hyper-massive industrial scale, he said.

Mr. Vembu also said, while software hiring in the Bay Area has contracted over the past 3 to 4 years outside of AI, automation itself is not a threat, it is the engine of prosperity.

“However, productivity gains only benefit citizens if we defeat tech monopolies. Foreign card networks extract 3.5% to 4% fees, whereas India’s NPCI processes over 25 billion monthly UPI transactions at near-zero cost on a lean ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore budget,’’ he pointed out adding, without indigenous alternatives to foreign platforms and monopolies, the country risked economic extraction and platform kill-switches. Therefore developing deep tech across every sector was non-negotiable, he added.

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, highlighted the institution’s role in expanding access to technology education and building India’s innovation ecosystem. IIT Madras’ programmes have reached around 53,000 students, while NPTEL-SWAYAM courses serve around 1.5 million learners. He also noted that IIT Madras has filed more than 400 patents in the last three financial years and incubated 583 startups with a combined valuation of around ₹83,000 crore.

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