IIT Bombay’s technology business incubator, the Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), announced plans on Thursday to launch a ₹100-crore venture capital fund aimed at supporting deep-tech startups and ventures addressing critical national priorities. SINE also aims to expand its support network significantly, targeting an increase to 1,000 startups over the next decade, more than quadrupling its current scale.

With a survival rate of over 80% compared to a low survivability rate of 20% among startups in the early stages of growth, SINE has supported 245 startups over the course of its 20-year history. This fund will be a game-changer, building on the company’s USD 3.56 billion valuation and USD 942 million in total funding, according to SINE.

Under central government programs, it has also taken over another 60 or so incubators across the country.

Access to upscale IIT Bombay labs, shared workspaces, prototype labs, technological know-how, finance, and mentoring are among the services it provides.

According to the technological business incubator, the fund will prioritise innovation in the fields of science, biotechnology, space, defence, and other national priority areas.

“SINE plans to scale up the number of startups it supports over four-fold to 1,000 over the next 10 years. To give further impetus to this plan, SINE plans to launch a Rs 100 crore Venture Capital (VC) fund to support deep tech startups and those in areas of national importance,” it said.

According to the platform, SINE plans to approach IIT Bombay alumni, many of whom are industry leaders, to solicit subscriptions for the prospective fund after it has received the required regulatory permissions.

Santosh J Gharpure, professor-in-charge at the platform, said, “When SINE was founded, India’s startup ecosystem was in its infancy. As the ecosystem grew and gained momentum over the years, we evolved alongside it, providing vital early-stage support to more than 1,000 entrepreneurs in their initial phases of their journeys.”

The platform lists a variety of companies that it has incubated in the past, including Haystack Analytics (genomics for clinical decisions), SustLabs (sustainable energy tech), Babblebots.ai (Voice AI for interviews), Inspecity (space technology), and Lifespark Technologies (mobility solutions for Parkinson’s patients).

“To have a scale impact, India needs to go from 100 startups per million population to 1,000,” SINE CEO Shaji Varghese said.

“We focus on supporting early-stage tech startups, particularly in the product hardware space, where the market is still evolving, and challenges are significant,” said Milind Atrey, Deputy Director (Academics, Research and Translation) at IIT Bombay.

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