IIT Kanpur, IIM Bangalore sign MoU to advance deep-tech startups
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and NSRCEL, the flagship business incubator of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, have signed an agreement in order to accelerate deep-tech startups and convert emerging technologies into market-ready commercial ventures in strategic sectors.
This partnership combines the strengths of IIT Kanpur in scientific research and technology development with NSRCEL’s expertise in entrepreneurship and business development. The initiative intends to build a strong platform for technology led start-ups academic and research institutions across the country.
The collaboration officially backs SCALE Catapult, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur’s deep-tech startup accelerator, with its initial cohort focusing on defence, aerospace, and other dual-use technologies. The bigger picture will enable future joint incubation, accelerator activities and long term ecosystem interaction for nascent technology ventures.
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Bridging technology and market
The partnership has the objective to help deep-tech innovations move from technical validation to commercial viability and real-world deployment. Through SCALE Catapult, participating startups are provided with access to cutting-edge research and development facilities and structured customer discovery, market validation and venture-building frameworks that establish pathways to growth.
Under the agreement, both institutions will explore joint incubation, co-incubation opportunities, knowledge exchange, and entrepreneurial best-practice sharing. The framework emphasises active engagement with industry stakeholders and investors to support technology self-reliance and strengthen connections between academic research and commercial markets.
Emphasising the importance of creating market pathways for institutional research, Jayandharan Giridhara Rao, dean of research and development at IIT Kanpur, said: “IIT Kanpur has a strong pipeline of deep-tech innovation, and creating pathways for these technologies to reach the market is an important institutional priority”.
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Expanding institutional capabilities
“By combining IIT Kanpur’s deep-tech capabilities with NSRCEL’s experience in scaling market-ready ventures, this partnership can create meaningful pathways to identify and nurture the next generation of deep-tech innovators in strategic sectors of national importance,” said Rasika Prashant, chief executive officer of NSRCEL, highlighting the strategic value of the collaboration.
The initiative is built on the incubation infrastructure of the Startup Incubation and Innovation Center (SIIC) of IIT Kanpur. In this framework, SCALE is the main startup development platform, and SCALE Catapult is dedicated to advancing specialised deep-tech ventures to commercial scale and industry adoption.
NSRCEL has experience in incubator management with 3,657 ventures, which have a valuation of over $7.37 billion and have created nearly 35,792 jobs. It also contains dedicated operational units such as the FinTech Center of Excellence and the Climate Center of Excellence.