Faculty Members Of IIT Madras Founded 94 Startups Valued At Rs 1,400 Crore

Faculty members at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, have founded at least 94 companies/enterprises having a combined valuation of over ₹ 1,400 crores. The startups range from firms aiming to make hybrid aerial vehicles to the ones working on converting waste to crude oil and efficient water transport solutions.

Officials said the IIT faculty members have founded, mentored or advised over 240 startups in the last ten years, which today have a combined valuation of ₹11,500 crores, reported Moneycontrol.

In October, the number of firms directly founded by IIT-Madras faculty members stood at 94. These have a combined valuation over ₹ 1,400 crores, based on investment raised by these startups from angel investors or venture capital firms.

Sharp Spike In Start Ups

Data shared by the IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) reveals that the number of faculty-founded startups went up from 37 in April 2017 to 69 in June 2019 and 80 in 2020 before touching 94 by October 2021. These startups were incubated by the IITMIC, one of India's leading deep technology startup hubs.

About 77 faculty members from various institute departments were involved in setting up startups. This figure is nearly 13 per cent of the total institute faculty strength of around 600, which is considered on par with the best universities in the world, the IITMIC claimed.

Tamaswati Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, IIT Madras Incubation Cell, said that over 12 per cent of institute faculty are co-founders in our incubated startups working across a breadth of globally critical domains.

"This underlines our ability to translate cutting-edge scientific innovations to the field," she added.

Innovation!

The highest numbers of associated startups or spin-outs are from the Departments of Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering, followed by Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics.

Raghuttama Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GDC), said the startups work primarily in deep technology areas, ranging from manufacturing, robotics, energy and renewables, e-mobility, space tech, internet of things, data sciences, biotechnology, healthcare, water treatment, waste to energy and waste management, and e-mobility, electric vehicles, among other areas.

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