IIT Kanpur has emerged as a major hub for deep tech startups, specializing in product-led innovation throughout sectors like AI, defence, and healthcare. Its incubation centre is now powering each home development and world growth.
Established in 2000, the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) is certainly one of India’s oldest know-how enterprise incubators, working underneath the Basis for Innovation and Analysis in Science & Know-how (FIRST), a Part 8 firm promoted by IIT Kanpur.
At the moment, SIIC hosts round 100 startups engaged on next-generation applied sciences throughout numerous sectors, together with AI, healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing.
It gives funding assist of as much as ₹20 lakh and one 12 months of devoted incubation that features mentorship, technical due diligence, and enterprise steering.
The incubator at IIT Kanpur has all the time leaned in the direction of product-driven startups. “Even again then, and nonetheless right now, we focus predominantly on ventures with a tangible technological product,” professor in-charge of incubation and innovation at SIIC, Deepu Philip, stated in an unique interview with AIM.
“We don’t usually interact with service-based fashions until there’s a powerful tech product on the core,” he added.
Philip stated that IIT Kanpur has incubated round 425 startups, out of which roughly 200 may be known as fairly profitable, based mostly on standards like income, valuation, and employment.
“We now have about 200 firms which have both secured a valuation of ₹10 crore, made constant income for 3 years, or employed 5 or extra individuals persistently.”
Philip added that 111 of those startups have undergone third-party unbiased valuations, collectively price ₹7,228 crore (~$1 billion).
IIT Madras, which has supported 457 deep-tech startups over the previous 12 years, is commonly the primary to return to thoughts when discussing startups. The startups, together with two unicorns and one IPO-bound firm, are actually collectively valued at greater than ₹50,000 crore. But, IIT Kanpur is steadily carving out its personal id as a thriving startup hub.
In Might, IIT Kanpur collaborated with the Wadhwani Basis to launch a Faculty of Superior Synthetic Intelligence and Clever Programs. Philip shared that the establishment acquired a $35 million grant from the Wadhwani Basis.
Furthermore, he shared that IIT Kanpur has submitted an utility underneath the IndiaAI Mission to develop a sovereign AI mannequin.
Philip added that IIT Kanpur is actively concerned in revolutionary public-private funding fashions. He defined the ‘40-40-20’ mannequin for the India AI mission, the place 40% is funded by the central authorities, 40% by the state authorities, and the remaining 20% is supported by the trade.
To assist startups discover markets past India, IIT Kanpur has signed an MoU with Toyota Tsusho and the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis to assist worldwide scaling.
Most lately, the SIIC has additionally partnered with NMexus, a brand new world enterprise accelerator launched in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The collaboration is anticipated to assist Indian startups acquire entry to the US via curated assist.
Startups incubated at SIIC will profit from soft-landing infrastructure, regulatory steering, mentoring, and market entry companies in North America. As per the official launch, NMexus will host as much as 40 firms yearly, aiming to create round 1,500 jobs and contribute over $400 million to the financial system over 5 years.
“The New Mexico centre is supposed to facilitate the worldwide growth of startups. As soon as they acquire a foothold internationally, they will shift operations there to scale,” Philip stated, including that Western markets, particularly the US, provide bigger income alternatives and later-stage funding.
IIT Kanpur is Open to Everybody
In response to Philip, IIT Kanpur’s incubation mannequin is uniquely inclusive—open to innovators from any school or area in India, not simply IIT college students.
Startups are chosen based mostly on advantage and incubated via your entire know-how readiness lifecycle, from concept to production-ready stage. “We enable anyone from the nation to combine, there’s no distinction. In the event that they match the factors, we incubate them, irrespective of the place they arrive from or which school they belong to,” he added.
He highlighted Synthetic Intelligence and Innovation Pushed Entrepreneurship – Centre of Excellence (AIIDE-CoE), an initiative backed by the UP authorities together with establishments like Uttar Pradesh Electronics Company Restricted (UPLC), which supplies seed funding, technical and enterprise mentorship, IP assist, and world scale-up alternatives.
“Our assist begins at TRL (Know-how Readiness Stage) 0, which is the ideation stage. We assist them scale as much as TRL 8 or 9, the place the product is prepared for the market,” he stated.
He added that one of many greatest hurdles in deep tech startups is masking IP and patenting prices. “Submitting and sustaining patents can simply price ₹60 to ₹70 crore over time. That’s the reason authorities assist is essential.”
Philip highlighted that in a startup’s early days, sustaining money stream issues greater than chasing huge investments.
He identified that even small grants, loans, or CSR funds can maintain issues shifting and assist startups survive lengthy sufficient to achieve momentum. He drew a line between ‘exhausting cash’ like VC or angel investments, which regularly include excessive expectations and a lack of management, and ‘smooth cash’ like authorities or CSR assist, which provides startups the respiratory room they want.
“Our job can also be to make sure the graceful stream of soppy cash, which permits the startups to work.”
Profitable IIT Kanpur Startups
The professor additional stated that the institute’s concentrate on product-based startups, significantly in deep tech, distinguishes its efforts. Sharing examples of firms like Ananant Programs, Life and Limb, xTerra Robotics and VU Dynamics.
Philip defined that Ananant is on the forefront of communication chip design in India, particularly for 5G or 6G domains. He careworn their contribution to bringing the essential chip design and concept-proofing elements, historically finished overseas, to India.
He defined that this home functionality is important for fostering an ecosystem of related firms constructing drivers, embedded programs, and AI functions.
Furthermore, he revealed that Life and Limb is creating clever prosthetics that reply to muscle twitches and voice instructions, shifting past mere beauty operate. “Based mostly on the muscle twitch, it might set off easy features like grabbing, working a machine or holding one thing.”
Alternatively, xTerra Robotics is constructing unmanned floor robots, together with robotic canine used for duties akin to bomb disposal and intelligence gathering in difficult environments.
In the meantime, VU Dynamics, a faculty-led firm, specialises in chemical drones geared up with autonomous goal acquisition, path planning, and execution capabilities.
Philip cited Curadev, a Kanpur-origin immunotherapy startup, as one of many success tales. The corporate has developed cancer-treatment medicine and made worthwhile exits.
He believes most IIT Kanpur startups choose non-public fairness over IPOs. Citing the instance of Phool, he stated, “It’s at present valued at ₹2,000 crore. To allow them to fortunately go for IPO, however they’re extra fascinated by securing funding.”
He cited the instance of a 45-kg runway-based UAV developed for BEML, which was showcased at Aero India 2025. Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) are actually selecting it for large-scale manufacturing. In response to a latest report, it might quickly change into a part of the Indian Military’s UAV arsenal.
High quality over Amount
Referring to Union minister Piyush Goyal’s latest comment in regards to the lack of deep tech startups in India, Philip stated it’s unrealistic to anticipate 100 deep tech startups to emerge in a single day.
“Many individuals don’t even perceive what deep tech means. It’s only a fancy time period right now,” he stated, including that IIT Kanpur prioritises high quality over amount, even when that ends in fewer startups.
He contrasted this with China’s philosophy that high quality emerges from amount. “We comply with a distinct path—high quality first,” he stated, arguing that such an strategy results in long-term influence, very like what the US has achieved.
Praising UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Philip stated that the UP authorities is marching steadily in the direction of a $1 trillion financial system. In response to him, there’s a constructive synergy between academia, trade, and the state authorities, significantly in semiconductors, defence, and biotech.
“After we began engaged on semiconductor chip design, the UP authorities started constructing a semiconductor park in Noida. After we centered on defence, they introduced the defence hall. There’s a clear alignment.”
“There isn’t any dearth of expertise on this nation. We now have to draw them, mentor them, and their merchandise should be showcased,” Philip concluded.
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