News
Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visited IIT Madras-incubated Waterfly Technologies in Chennai for the unveiling of Hummingbird, the startup's electric wing-in-ground craft. The craft takes off from water and flies just above the surface, and Waterfly plans its first ocean trial between Chennai and Puducherry by December 2026.
Read the story ↗The team delivered an impressive performance at the RoboNation SUAS 2026 competition, successfully completing 5 endurance laps (10 miles) and a mapping survey with autonomous takeoff and landing, along with nearly 40 minutes of continuous flight without a crash. The team secured 1st Place in the Technical Design Report and Best Website categories and earned $1,250 in performance prizes. Minor payload-system issues prevented the team from completing the payload drops.
Read the story ↗Team AgniRath from IIT Madras secured 3rd Place Internationally at the Sasol Solar Challenge 2026 in South Africa, marking a landmark achievement for Indian solar racing. The team covered 1000+ km across 8 challenging days and recorded the highest distance covered by an Indian team on Day 5, showcasing engineering excellence, teamwork, and innovation in sustainable mobility.
Read the story ↗SIE showcased its deep-tech venture pipeline at the inaugural IIT Madras Technology Summit in New Delhi, inaugurated by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister of Education. The summit brought together government, industry and academia around technology-driven solutions for a Viksit Bharat.
Read the story ↗The School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the IIT Madras Incubation Cell signed an MoU with Translation Endeavors — the venture-building initiative co-founded by Kunal Upadhyay (IIMA Ventures) — to accelerate the journey from science innovation to market-ready ventures through seed funding, acceleration support and access to world-class infrastructure. The initiative was unveiled in the presence of the Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu.
Read the story ↗Delta Expo 2026, hosted by SIE, brought bold ideas to life across campus — student startups and breakthrough technologies open to students, visitors and the public. The expo was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.
Read the story ↗CFI's Avishkar Hyperloop team won the championship at the Global Hyperloop Competition 2026 — the latest in a run of podium finishes that includes Raftar's 2nd place at Formula Bharat and Team Anveshak's 2nd runner-up finish with the Best Rover Mission award at the International Rover Challenge 2026.
Read the story ↗IIT Madras Research Park and Unicorn India Ventures announced the ₹600 crore 'IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund I' (with a ₹400 crore greenshoe option) at the inauguration of E-Summit 2026 by Prof. V. Kamakoti. The 10+2-year patient-capital fund will back 25+ IP-led deep-tech startups — robotics, spacetech, deftech, semicon, medtech — with first cheques of ₹8–10 crore, a significant share sourced from the IITM ecosystem.
Read the story ↗Prof. Murugaiyan Amirthalingam takes charge as Advisor of Nirmaan and Prof. Manish Anand as Advisor of CFI, beginning a new phase of leadership for the student innovation pipeline at IIT Madras.
Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri succeeds Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal as Head of SIE, building on a strong foundation to accelerate the school's active venture-creation model.
Read the story ↗The Centre for Innovation hosted Research Conclave 2025, bringing together students, researchers and innovators for a full day of learning, collaboration and knowledge exchange.
CFI's solar racing team Agnirath covered 600+ km at the World Solar Challenge 2025 in Australia — the first Indian team to do so in 15 years.
IIT Madras formally launched SIE to give an academic backbone to its startup ecosystem — uniting CFI, Nirmaan, degree programmes, founder fellowships and seed support under one school.
Read the story ↗NSA Shri Ajit Doval visited the Sudha & Shankar Innovation Hub, recognising the impact of student-led startups and the strength of the IIT Madras innovation ecosystem.
Read the story ↗In the press
Media coverage of innovation and entrepreneurship at IIT Madras.
The Hindu · 14 Aug 2026
IIT Madras-incubated startup signs ₹100-crore deal with T.N. govt. to scale up EV charger manufacturing
ascendants.in · 14 Jul 2026
IIT Madras Launches ₹200 Crore VC Fund To Power Next-Gen Startups
newindianexpress.com · 3 Jun 2026
TN AI Minister interacts with deep-tech innovation ecosystem stakeholders at IIT-M Research Park
The Hindu · 9 May 2026
IIT Madras Global Research Foundation announces deep tech hub in California
BioSpectrum India · 8 May 2026
IIT Madras announces $7.5 M Menlo Park deep-tech hub to drive Indian innovation into Silicon Valley
iitm.ac.in · 27 Apr 2026
IIT Madras achieves ‘Startup Shatam’ for Second Year in a Row and Sustains ‘One Patent a Day’ Momentum
PIB · 27 Apr 2026
IIT Madras Achieves Deep-Tech Milestone: 112 Startups Incubated and 431 Patents Filed in FY 2025-26
timesofindia.indiatimes.com · 27 Mar 2026
IIT Madras MS Entrepreneurship programme 2026: Applications close on March 30; check who can apply, direc
India Today · 27 Mar 2026
IIT Madras MS Entrepreneurship programme 2026: Registrations close on March 30; steps to apply and direct link here
ET Education · 17 Mar 2026
Future transit systems, AI yoga among IIT students' innovations
thehindubusinessline.com · 14 Mar 2026
IIT Madras hosts Delta Expo to showcase student innovations and startups
Careers360 · 14 Mar 2026
IIT Madras hosts Delta Expo 2026, students showcase innovations, startups on AI, robotics, aerospace