The I&E Stack
Five stages. One campus. Zero gaps.
At IIT Madras, you can go from first prototype to funded company without leaving the campus. SIE connects every layer of that journey, based out of the Sudha & Shankar Innovation Hub — inaugurated by the Hon'ble Vice President of India in February 2023.
Stage 1 · Tinker
Centre for Innovation (CFI)
“Walk in with an idea, walk out with a product.” Established in 2008 with seed funds from the IITM alumni class of 1981, CFI is India's pioneering student-run 24/7 tinker lab — students build for international competitions and faculty- and industry-defined problems across robotics, aero, AI, biotech, blockchain and more.
Competition teams build hyperloop pods, autonomous vehicles, solar racecars, sounding rockets, Mars rovers and submersible robots — and the strongest projects graduate into the startup pipeline.
14
Clubs
8
Competition teams
73
Active projects
22
Faculty involved
1,100+
Students involved
14
Startups in the CFI→Nirmaan→IITMIC pipeline
Recent wins
Latest CFI competition results from 2025–26.
SUAS IITM — 1st — Technical Design Report and Best Website, RoboNation SUAS 2026
Team AgniRath — 3rd internationally — Sasol Solar Challenge 2026 (1,192 km)
Avishkar Hyperloop — Champions — Global Hyperloop Competition 2026
Raftar Formula Racing — 2nd overall, Electric — Formula Bharat 2026
Team Anveshak — 3rd overall + RADO Mission Award — International Rover Challenge 2026
Team AgniRath — First Indian team in 15 years to cover 600+ km — World Solar Challenge 2025
Stage 2 · Pre-incubate
Nirmaan — The Pre-Incubator
Nirmaan is the first dedicated pre-incubator on a college campus in India — a sandbox for young entrepreneurs created in 2015 with support from the IITM alumni class of 1992 and Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan. More than 300 teams have been supported since.
Pratham (6 months, up to ₹2 lakh) is the "startup nursery" — entrepreneurial training, market analysis and prototype building. Qualified teams advance to Akshar (6 months, up to ₹5 lakh) for MVP development, advanced business concepts across sales, pricing and marketing, plus VC and investor interaction. Graduates include GalaxEye (₹58 Cr Series A) and Plenome.
399
Student entrepreneurs (FY 24–25)
239
Active teams
24
Faculty entrepreneurs
17
Startups registered with MCA
₹80 Cr+
Startup revenue (FY 24–25)
₹1,000 Cr+
Portfolio valuation
Stages 3–5 · Learn, fund, scale
Then SIE takes you the rest of the way
Learn
MS (Entrepreneurship) with startup-as-thesis, PhD research on innovation, and ID-series electives open to all IITM students.
Programs →
Fund
UG-FIR and PG-FIR fellowships: a stipend, accommodation and mentorship to build your company full-time after graduation.
Fellowships →
Scale
Graduating ventures move into the IIT Madras Incubation Cell and Research Park — deep-tech India's strongest launchpad. ↗
IITMIC →
Cutting across every stage
E-Cell — the evangelisation layer
The Entrepreneurship Cell is part of the school alongside CFI and Nirmaan — not a stage in the pipeline but the layer that cuts across all of it. E-Cell evangelises entrepreneurship on campus and beyond: it runs E-Summit, India's largest student-run entrepreneurship summit (10,000+ attendees, 500+ startups in 2026), pitch arenas, workshops and outreach that keep the top of the funnel full for every programme downstream.
E-Cell IIT Madras ↗
E-Summit, campus outreach and the founder community.
Translation funnel
From pre-incubation to incubation
How teams move through the pipeline — measured across all Nirmaan cohorts.
321
Teams entered Nirmaan (all cohorts)
50
Graduated — 15.6% overall graduation rate
28
Reached IITM Incubation Cell
56%
Of graduates go on to incubate at IITMIC
103
IPs filed by CFI & Nirmaan teams
22 + 11
Patents + trademarks filed by the Aug 2023 cohort alone
70
Pre-Incubation Agreements signed
Partners in the stack
The wider IIT Madras I&E family
GDC ↗
The Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — lab-to-market coaching that helps researchers translate science into ventures.
IITM Incubation Cell ↗
One of India's leading deep-tech incubators — where Nirmaan graduates incorporate, raise and scale, backed by the IITM Research Park.
VentureArch ↗
SIE's venture-building platform — the digital backbone founders, mentors and programme teams use across the pipeline.