About the school
The academic backbone of IIT Madras's startup engine
SIE gives an academic footprint to IITM's extensive startup ecosystem. Through regular and professor-of-practice faculty, we provide structured entrepreneurship education to startup founders and corporates — spanning the maker space CFI, pre-incubator Nirmaan, the MS and PhD programmes, UG & PG founder fellowships, seed funding and mentorship.
Why we exist
Top 5 entrepreneurial universities. Top 3 startup nation.
IIT Madras already produces India's strongest deep-tech pipeline. SIE's job is to make venture creation a first-class academic pursuit: research to revenue, supported at every step through tinkering labs, deep-tech centres of excellence, pre-incubation, lab-to-market education and venture studios.
Our vision is for IIT Madras to rank among the top 5 global entrepreneurial universities — and to help propel India into the top 3 deep-tech, science-based startup nations.
The school operates from the Sudha & Shankar Innovation Hub, inaugurated by the Hon'ble Vice President of India in February 2023 — with 300+ students working in the hub every day.
Leadership
Messages from our leadership
“The School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship provides the academic foundation to IITM's 'I&E Stack' and will train the coming generation of startup founders who will produce distinctive solutions addressing some of the most pressing industrial and societal challenges. SIE at IIT Madras is one of our key initiatives towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and is aligned with visionary programmes such as Make in India, Swachh Bharat and NEP.”
Prof. Kamakoti VeezhinathanDirector, IIT Madras“SIE at IIT Madras is leading its transformation into India's foremost entrepreneurial university. Our vision is to be among the top 5 global entrepreneurial universities and to propel India as a top-3 deep-tech, science-based startup nation. SIE pioneers an active venture-creation model, where research to revenue is supported at every step through our innovation stack — tinkering labs, deep-tech centres of excellence, pre-incubation, lab-to-market education and venture studios.”
Prof. Satyanarayanan SeshadriHead, School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship“Nirmaan, the pre-incubator at IIT Madras, supports students, researchers and alumni taking their first steps into entrepreneurship. It turns early ideas and prototypes into real startup opportunities through mentorship, seed funding, prototyping support and access to the wider IIT Madras startup ecosystem — working closely with aspiring founders from concept to a strong, scalable venture.”
Prof. Murugaiyan AmirthalingamAdvisor, Nirmaan“The Centre for Innovation is where IIT Madras students learn by doing — a 24/7 student-run lab where ideas are built, broken and rebuilt until they work. CFI is the first step of the founder pipeline at IIT Madras.”
Prof. Manish AnandAdvisor, CFIGenesis
How the ecosystem grew
Two decades of building — from CFI's founding in 2008 and Nirmaan's launch in 2015 to the school itself and the Sudha & Shankar Innovation Hub.
