The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has established a research foundation that will be a catalyst for its startups, patents and technologies originating from the institute’s ecosystem.
The foundation will create access to global markets, capital and funding for the institute’s research and innovation and help scale the institute’s academic programmes through university collaborations and industry partnerships.
The IITM Research Foundation will be headed by Thirumalai Madhav Narayan as its chief executive officer. Mr. Narayan was one of the founding members of the Redington group and has over 37 years of experience in strategising, building, transforming and scaling business for technology multinationals such as Intel, HP, Dell, Samsung and Epson.
Institute director V. Kamakoti said, “IITMRF is a strategic initiative aligned with India’s vision to become the ‘vishwaguru’ and to be a creator of global startups.”
IITMRF will focus on patents and technologies ready for commercialisation, startups established by institute faculty founders, students and researchers. It will also explore based on market thesis, give access to startups from the institute’s ecosystem and expose them to new markets, capital and technological adjacencies. In addition, it will help access institute-created technologies for alumni and scale up international academic programmes through collaborations and industry partnerships.
The institute has 161 active patents in the United States. Over 10,000 alumni from the institute are working across that country in senior leadership positions in top corporate firms besides founding companies and startups.
Mr. Narayan said, “The IITMRF would be a scalable and sustainable ‘plug and play’ platform with local flavour, to take IIT Madras assets global, fuelling exponential growth in innovation and entrepreneurship, enhanced industry engagement and research and development partnerships.”
