Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO, IITM Incubation Cell | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Of the 567 startups incubated under IIT Madras’ ambitious ‘100 Startups a Year’ mission, 25% have female co-founders, indicating a growing push for diversity and inclusive entrepreneurship in India’s deep tech and startup landscape. “The percentage has been consistently over 25% for the past two years, which is very encouraging for the deep tech sector, where women are traditionally underrepresented,” said Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO, IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC).
“For both Startup Shatam cohorts (FY2024-2025 and 2025-2026), we continued to see strong participation from female founders across sectors, including health tech, biotech, artificial intelligence, sustainability and agritech,” she noted.
Businesses that have been incubated under the “100 Startups a Year” mission have also started raising funds to scale up their businesses. Ms. Ghosh pointed out that several startups incubated in FY 2024-25 (part of Startup Shatam’s first milestone) have already started raising external funding, including angel investments and venture capital. They have also been supported through IITMIC’s internal grants and CSR-supported programs run in collaboration with IITM’s School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “In the last two financial years, more than ₹20 crore in grant funding has been released to 100 early-stage startups (those incubated in FY25 and FY26) to support product development and Go-To-Market (GTM) activities, with startups typically receiving ₹15-20 lakh in early stage grant support,” she pointed out.
When asked how many startups that were incubated last year did not survive, she said, “Six startups from the FY24-25 incubation batch are currently suspended or shutting down due to co-founder incompatibilities/issues that could not be resolved and inability to achieve product-market fit.”
When asked if this momentum will continue over the years, Ms. Ghosh said, “Incubating more than 100 startups in one financial year for two consecutive years is certainly ambitious. However, it has become sustainable due to the depth and maturity of the innovation ecosystem of IIT Madras and the deep technology support system for startups and the national visibility through IITMIC’s existing portfolio of companies built over the years through its success and influence so far.” ITMIC.”
The data shows that nearly 60% of the 567+ startup founders are external entrepreneurs (not from IITs) and today the ecosystem has representation from all over India – including North Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-Maharashtra belt, Odisha and Southern states.
Ms. Ghosh explained that a key moment of this year’s Startup Shatam milestone is the increasing maturity of startups entering the ecosystem – including the growing number of revenue-generating startups, startups that have received external funding (early stage before Series A) and those founded by serial entrepreneurs (second or third ventures). “This trend marks a shift from predominantly early-stage / product-development stage incubation to a more balanced portfolio of early-stage and market-ready startups, strengthening the overall commercial depth of the ecosystem,” she said.
In FY26 alone, IITMIC received over 1200 incubation applications from across India, out of which 112 startups were selected. “The challenge today is not to attract startups that want to be part of the IITM ecosystem, but to identify dedicated founders who are building truly differentiated deep technology solutions – often aligned with national or global technology priorities – and who are willing to work closely with us to build and scale their businesses with long-term impact,” Ms. Ghosh said.
Published – 17 May 2026 0:23 IST
