‘We plan to open over five IIT-M Global centres’

After initial success in deep-tech incubation, IIT Madras has sets its sights on global expansion to support startups in entering new markets, funding, and corporate partnerships. In an interview, Thirumalai Madhavnarayan, chief executive and director of IIT-M Global (IIT Madras Global Research Foundation), said that they are opening centres in five markets, including the US, UAE and UK, starting with around 50 curated deep-techs. They are seeing traction in commercialising the institute’s IPs, with interest across energy, marine and space sectors. Excerpts:

What does IIT-M Global do?

It takes IIT Madras’s research and innovation ecosystem to global markets in a scalable way without building large overseas campuses. Our four pillars to go global are growth-stage deep-tech startups from IIT-M’s ecosystem, sponsored research and consultancy, Intellectual property and interdisciplinary, globally relevant academic programmes.

Why are you opening international centres?

We recently opened a tech and startup centre in Menlo Park, California. We plan to open more than five centres by the end of the year, including one more centre on the US East Coast, UK, UAE, Germany, Malaysia and also in Tanzania, based out of our Zanzibar campus.

How would that help startups?

Through these centres, we aim to provide a platform that startups typically lack, including short-term workspace in the market, soft landing support, helping with initial establishment, and supporting go-to-market and customer connections. We work with local partners to enable this. We also aim to provide capital access by building early relationships with VCs.

What kind of startups can do well?

We want to ensure startup readiness. So they will be assessed and selected by an expert committee. Curated startups are typically three to five years into business with sustainable performance and the right market fit. Around 50 startups will be shortlisted, with 10 startups for every five markets by next year. That itself is a big task.

Why don’t we have domestic customers for deep-tech?

Startups go where adoption, customers, and capital are. The strongest examples include one of our energy startups which raised capital from the UK, Ather which succeeded in India, and conversational AI startup Uniphore, which became a US unicorn.

Is Menlo Park selected for the AI ecosystem?

Its solid ecosystem will be a fuel for startups to grow. We are sector agnostic. For any startup trying to raise capital, success depends on application of technology. VCs are open to looking at companies. As long as your tech addresses a compelling market need, is scalable, and is backed by a solid product that solves a problem, investors will be interested. The product must have IPs built into it, as these serve as key differentiators.

What’s your goal in IP commercialisation?

IIT-M filed more than 430 patents last year and a significant number of them are investible. I can see early traction expected mainly from Western Europe and the US across multiple areas, including energy, mobility, AI, marine, and space. When I evaluate the commercial potential of our IPs, a major focus is on the technology readiness level (TRL). When TRL is at level four or below, market interest goes down. The dynamic changes at level five and above. At this point, interest becomes high because the asset is seen as investable. This is critical as you can stack multiple IPs together to build a comprehensive tech stack, allowing you to address a much larger gap in the global market.

What’s your outlay for these global expansions?

We are not disclosing that at the moment. We are a self-sustaining organisation. When we enter global markets to set up hubs, we bring IIT-Madras’s knowhow to the table. Locations such as Menlo Park in Silicon Valley are undeniably expensive. We are provided with this space and soft landing money for the IPs we bring into their ecosystem. The agreement is that as we convert these academic and technological assets into commercial value, the resulting value is mutually shared with our partners.