IIT Madras Opens Innovation School to Boost Startup Ecosystem

• IIT Madras launches School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to support campus startup initiatives.
• The school will offer academic programs, funding, and research for startups, including a new MS in Entrepreneurship.
• IIT Madras Incubation Cell incubated 104 startups in FY 2024–25, with 457 startups built over 12 years.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has launched a School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to provide organized academic support for developing startup businesses.

“Our goal is to emerge as the leading school for innovation and entrepreneurship in the next five years and put IITM on the map of entrepreneurial universities across the world,” Prabhu Rajagopal, Head, School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship told The Hindu. “The goal is primarily to provide an academic footprint to the entrepreneurial activities that are going on inside the campus,” he added.

According to Mr. Rajagopal, who is a serial faculty-entrepreneur and a faculty member of the Mechanical Engineering Department, the school will offer a wide range of academic and non-academic programs, cutting-edge research in innovation and entrepreneurship, and a distinctive lab-to-startup pathway through the MS in Entrepreneurship (to be offered from the July-November 2025 semester). “We will bring all the innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives on campus under this school. For example, the Centre for Innovation (CFI) and Nirmaan will now come under the school,” he added.

Plans are underway to establish IITM-specific funding mechanisms for startups during their initiation and scale-up phases, which will operate under the banner of this school. Undergraduate and master’s levels are also being considered for practice-led degrees “We are also looking at an ‘Innovation Doctorate,’” Mr. Rajagopal said.

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“Last year, IIT-M Director set an ambitious target of incubating 100 startups every year. And we have achieved it. But it can’t be a one-time wonder – We need to be doing it on a regular basis every time. And that’s why we need to provide academic support for entrepreneurship on campus,” he added.

During the 2024-25 fiscal year, IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) facilitated the establishment of 104 new startups. More than half of the startups were formed by members of IIT Madras such as faculty, staff, students, and alumni, while 48% were established by external entrepreneurs. 

Over 12 years IITMIC has helped build 457 deep-tech startups with a combined valuation of greater than ₹50,000 crores.