IIT Madras’ recently formed Global Research Foundation (IIT M Global) plans to operationalise four overseas innovation centres by the end of the year.
The centres, which will be set up in the UK, Germany, Malaysia and Dubai, will add to the recently opened and operational facility in the United States.
Speaking to businessline, Thirumalai Madhavnarayan, CEO and Director, IITM Global Research Foundation said that the centres will enable IIT Madras to globalise its start-ups, research & consultancy capabilities, intellectual properties and academic programmes.
For start-ups in particular, he said that such centres will allow them to tailor their offerings for different geographies.
“When you go global, unless you custom engineer your solutions to connect with that local market need, you will not extract the value. Our local footprint will allow start-ups to understand the market dynamics and map priorities for the respective countries,” he said.
Late-stage start-ups
He added that the focus will be on late-stage start-ups that have reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5 and are commercially active.
The centre in the US, which was unveiled at the SelectUSA Investment Summit, was built with an investment of $7.5 million and Madhavnarayan believes that the other planned centres will also have similar investment allocations.
In the next five years IITM Global plans to set up such centres in 10-15 countries. While it operates as a Section 8 not-for-profit entity in India, subsidiaries established overseas are expected to operate as for-profit entities.
Madhavnarayan mentioned that the model of collaborations in these centres are not one-size-fits-all and depends on the synergies within the host country. “In the US and Malaysia, we partnered with the Indian diaspora and State governments, in the UAE, it was the federal government and in the UK it was an academic institution. Different geographies have different models,” he said.
Meanwhile, he mentioned that currently the IITM Global will focus on IIT Madras-incubated start-ups, in the long run, like the institutes’ incubation cell and research park, it will open itself up to ventures from outside.
Published on May 7, 2026