evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

IIT Madras Research Park & Technology Transfer Office

India · Chennai · See the India profile · See the Chennai profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 42% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

IIT Madras's incubation and technology-transfer ecosystem in Chennai has incubated 567 startups (2 unicorns, ₹74,100cr/~US$8bn portfolio) and filed 431 patents in FY2025-26, licensing 27 IP assets to industry partners that year.

567 startups
Cumulative startups incubated
112 startups
New startups incubated (FY2025-26)
431 patents
Patents filed (FY2025-26)
378 patents
Patents filed (FY2023-24)
27 assets
IP assets licensed (FY2025-26)
44 assets
IP assets licensed (FY2024-25)
13 assets
IP assets licensed (FY2023-24)
74100 ₹ crore (~US$8bn)
Cumulative startup portfolio value
2 companies
Unicorns produced

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Indian Institute of Technology Madras — IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) & Technology Transfer Office (ICSR)
Period
2013–present
Keywords
University technology transfer, deep-tech startup incubation, IP licensing, R&D commercialisation

Context

IIT Madras Research Park in Chennai houses the Institute's Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and Technology Transfer Office (TTO), which together run one of India's longest-standing university deep-tech incubation and IP-licensing pipelines, with IITMIC's founding dated to around 2013.

Activities

IITMIC incubates early-stage deep-tech startups - over 60% of them founded by entrepreneurs from outside the Institute - while the Technology Transfer Office tracks patents filed and IP assets licensed to industry on a fiscal-year basis under the "Startup Shatam" programme.

Results

In FY2025-26 IITMIC incubated 112 new startups (its second consecutive year above 100), IIT Madras filed 431 patents (352 Indian and 79 international, up from 378 in FY2023-24), and the TTO licensed 27 IP assets to industry (21 patents, 5 know-how and 1 other) to partners including Tunga Aerospace, AspenTech and Ciena, after a peak of 44 licensed IPs in FY2024-25 and 13 in FY2023-24; the cumulative 567-startup portfolio is valued at roughly ₹74,100 crore (about US$8 billion) and includes two unicorns, with Ather Energy becoming the first IITMIC-incubated company to complete an IPO.

Conclusions

The practice offers unusually granular, multi-year administrative monitoring of a university technology-transfer pipeline, though most figures are self-reported by the Institute via press releases and India's official PIB press service rather than externally audited, and the sharp FY2024-25 licensing spike is not explained in available sources.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
The IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and the Institute's Technology Transfer Office (under ICSR) jointly run the incubation and IP-licensing pipeline.

Conditions for success

  • A dedicated Technology Transfer Office tracking patents-to-licenses by fiscal year.
  • Sustained pipeline of over 100 new startups a year for two consecutive years under the 'Startup Shatam' programme.
  • Named industry licensing partners (Tunga Aerospace, AspenTech, Ciena).

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful