IIT Roorkee Launches Rs 1,000 Crore Super Endowment Fund for Deep-Tech Innovation

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITRoorkee), in collaboration with IvyCap Ventures & NuQuant, has announced the launch of a Super Endowment Fund with a target corpus of approximately Rs 1,000 crore.

As part of the Bharat Innovates initiative, Super Endowment Fund has been envisioned as a perpetual and self-sustaining source of capital to strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem by creating long-term and sustainable support for deep-tech startups, the institute said in a statement.

The Fund aims to support research excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology translation across the IIT Network. During Bharat Innovates 2026, an initiative of the Government of India, implemented by the Ministry of Education, at Nice, France, India is extending an invitation to leading global universities, research organisations, innovators, investors, philanthropists, and industry leaders to collaborate in the domains of Climate Technologies, Energy Systems, Semiconductors, Advanced Manufacturing, Critical Minerals, Healthcare, and other strategic DeepTech sectors, and to participate in the Fund and its associated innovation activities.

The initiative aims to create a globally connected innovation platform that accelerates research translation, fosters cross-border partnerships, and enables the development of technologies with global impact. It seeks to create a transformative platform that mobilises alumni, philanthropic, corporate, and institutional contributions towards advancing India’s knowledge economy.

The Fund is expected to catalyse high-impact research and innovation in strategic sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, critical minerals, quantum computing, clean energy, climate resilience, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, circular economy and agritech.

The proposed endowment model aims to strengthen linkages between academia, industry, investors, and alumni networks, enabling sustained support for breakthrough technologies, startup creation, intellectual property generation, and societal impact. Through this initiative, IIT Roorkee aspires to contribute significantly to India's vision of becoming a global leader in innovation, deep-tech entrepreneurship, and innovation-driven economic growth.

The endowment will be managed by IvyCap Ventures. Through this endowment model, IvyCap is enabling India’s premier institutions to generate world-class intellectual property from their own campuses, advancing India’s journey to becoming the IP capital of the world.

“The Super Endowment is the most exciting chapter yet in a journey we began with India’s first endowment fund at IIT Delhi,” said Vikram Gupta, Founder &Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures. “What drives me is a simple conviction - that the wealth created by our institutions’ alumni must flow back to power the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs. This fund makes that cycle of giving perpetual, and I believe it will redefine how India funds innovation.”

“This is more than a fund - it is a compounding engine for Indian innovation,” said Prof. K.K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee. “Every rupee will work in perpetuity to turn ideas born on this campus into entrepreneurs and IP that the world builds upon. By bringing together the collective strength of alumni, industry, philanthropic organisations, and global partners, we aim to create enduring impact and empower future generations of researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.”

Kislay Kanth, Founder, NuQuant, said, “India has the potential to emerge as a global leader in DeepTech innovation. Through this collaboration, we aim to strengthen the connection between research, entrepreneurship, and global capital, enabling breakthrough technologies to scale and create meaningful impact. The Super Endowment Fund represents a powerful model for fostering long-term innovation and international collaboration.”