For the second year in a row, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) has incubated more than 100 start-ups under its ‘Startup Shatam’ mission.
The institute, through its nodal incubator, IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) incubated 112 start-ups in FY26, up from 104 in the previous financial year.
Overall, IITM IC portfolio now includes 567 start-ups that are collectively valued at over ₹74,100 Crore ($8 billion). Some of the start-ups incubated Agnikul Cosmos, Mindgrove, Uniphore and Guvi alongside Ather Energy, whose 2025 IPO made it the first publicly listed company from IIT M’s portfolio.
Meanwhile, the institute also filed 431 patents during the year, outperforming the ‘one patent a day’ target set by V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras. The number of patents in FY26 is slightly higher than the 419 patents filed in FY25.
Out of the total patents filed, 352 were under Indian Patent filing, while 79 were part of international patent filing.
Interestingly, about 60 per cent of the start-ups incubated in FY26 were founded by external entrepreneurs across India. The newly incubated start-ups span a wide range of critical deep tech sectors, including manufacturing, robotics, automotive, batteries, defence, aerospace, AI and machine learning, biotech and quantum technologies.
“These milestones reflect the culture of innovation that has taken deep roots across IIT Madras. Our faculty, students, researchers, alumni and external entrepreneurs are creating technologies and enterprises that can serve India and the world. The combination of startup creation and strong patent activity demonstrates our commitment to translating research into real impact,” said Kamakoti.
Published on April 27, 2026