Chennai: The IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) has crossed a landmark milestone by incubating over 500 deep-tech startups since its inception in 2013, positioning IIT Madras as India's largest hub for technology-driven innovation, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The startups span sectors including manufacturing, robotics, space, aerospace and defence, AI, medtech, IoT and climate technologies. Collectively, they have a combined valuation of over ₹53,000 crore and attracted more than ₹17,000 crore in investor funding, generating over 11,000 direct jobs. Notable success stories include Ather Energy, Uniphore, Agnikul Cosmos, Medibuddy, Hyperverge, Stellapps (MooPay), Planys, Detect, Mindgrove and Galaxeye.

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras and Chairman of IITMIC, said, “IITMIC has taken a firm progressive step towards building India's deep-tech ecosystem, in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.”

Dr. Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO of IITMIC, said the incubator is currently supporting over 100 new startups annually, up from an average of 60 per year, with 39 per cent founded by IIT Madras faculty, students or alumni and 61 per cent by external entrepreneurs. “We have already produced two unicorns, one IPO, and several companies are poised to cross the billion-dollar valuation threshold,” she added.

To date, IITMIC startups have filed over 700 patents, 190 startups are operational in the market generating ₹4,000 crore revenue in FY 2023-24, and 13 mergers and acquisitions have been completed. The incubator continues to provide end-to-end support, from technology validation to global market access, leveraging IIT Madras' institutional and international linkages.

IITMIC also oversees sector-specific incubators such as IITM Bioincubator, HTIC Medtech, Rural Technology Business Incubator and Pravartak Technologies Foundation.