Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman launched the IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I at Sangam 2026 in Bengaluru on Saturday. The event was the seventh edition of the annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association. The fund is an Alternative Investment Fund set up by Unicorn India Ventures with IIT Madras and IIT Madras Research Park. It will put 5 to 20 crore rupees into early stage deep tech startups. It has completed a first close of about 450 crore rupees after getting SEBI approval. On the launch day 55 crore rupees went into four startups. Scroll for more details.
What The New Deep Tech Fund Will Do
The fund is targeting 600 to 1000 crore rupees in total. Its final close is expected by December this year. It will focus on sectors like defence space semiconductors, robotics manufacturing artificial intelligence and health technology. Alumni have committed more than 150 crore rupees to the fund. The first four startups to get money are Hathor, Quanstra,Triolt Energy and Carbelim. Hathor builds rocket engines for small satellite launches. Quanstra works on quantum instrumentation. Triolt Energy makes battery cells for drones and electric vehicles. Carbelim uses microalgae for carbon capture. The fund plans to build a portfolio of about 25 companies. Most of these will be early stage firms and it will run for ten years with a two year extension.
Sitharaman On Growth And IIT Madras Startup Plans
Ms. Sitharaman said India has moved from a fragile five economy to the fastest growing large economy in the world. She credited structural reforms, institutional strengthening and targeted policy measures for this change. She also released a book named “Cashless Nation How UPI Changed Everything”. It is written by Santanu Paul and B. Sambamurthy. IIT Madras Director Prof. V. Kamakoti said the institute aims to incubate 1000 startups. It hopes to support one IPO every month by 2032-34. Unicorn India Ventures Managing Partner Bhaskar Majumdar said India is entering a defining decade for deep tech and the country is moving from promise to scale.
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