“The presence of GIC, BlackRock and Ram Sriram on the cap table implies a thesis that India’s launch market is a multi-decade infrastructure story, not a speculative tech bet,” says Vipul Patel, partner for seed investing at IIMA Ventures.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Merak Ventures, Java Capital, IIMA Ventures, and angel investor Manish Gandhi. As part of the funding, the startup plans to advance its flagship thermal satellite missions and further develop its AI-powered platform for thermal intelligence applications.

IIMA Ventures has averaged 6-8 exits from it's portfolio every year since FY 13

Ahead of International Women's Day, Priyanka Chopra, CEO and Managing Partner at IIMA Ventures, speaking to Outlook Business, reflects on her journey from working on the Solaris networking team at Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley to helping build one of India’s most influential startup platforms. She discusses the evolution of India’s early-stage ecosystem, the importance of institutional support for founders building in frontier sectors, the need for greater representation in venture capital, and the lessons she has learned navigating leadership, career trade-offs, and the long game of building companies and institutions that shape the country’s future.

The expansion of startups in emerging regions has been supported largely by early-stage investors. Angel networks and seed-focused platforms such as Venture Catalysts, Inflection Point Ventures, and IIMA Ventures have been instrumental in funding early-stage ventures.

Funding support in these regions is largely driven by angel networks and seed-focused investors such as Venture Catalysts, Inflection Point Ventures, We Founder Circle, IIMA Ventures and SucSEED Indovation.

Vipul Patel, partner at IIMA Ventures, which has backed ideaForge, Agnikul, and Sagar Defence, among others, sees the most credible bets emerging at the intelligence stack layer, specifically perception, sensor fusion, and autonomous decision-making.

India is poised to become an innovation nation. New initiatives like RDIF and ANRF support deep technologies. Universities and labs are key to this transformation. Strategic support systems and patient capital are needed to bridge the gap between research and commercialization. Sector-focused clusters will foster growth. Translation of inventions into scalable innovations is imperative for global

Ahmedabad: Dr Jitendra Singh, MoS (science and technology), Govt of India, said on Monday that the next phase of India's growth will be driven by deep tech-led innovation, supported by strong institutions, sound management practices, and the effective translation of academic research into real-world impact.

Gig work will likely be a pillar of India’s economy, with platforms ensuring financial inclusion and flexible work for millions. But fragmented regulatory frameworks, instability and volatility remain key concerns

When these GPUs are deployed at scale, data centers effectively become "AI factories". Think massive racks drawing kilowatts, like 240 kW per rack, pushing facility demands into the realm of gigawatts. That leads to investments reaching half a trillion dollars by 2028, as operators chase power density and efficiency.

India’s 470 million working-age women are a massive untapped economic force. Recognising their invisible labour and designing contextual financial solutions is key to unlocking inclusive, sustainable national growth

Ahmedabad-based spacetech SatLeo Labs has raised $3.3 Mn (around INR 28 Cr) in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Merak Ventures, along with participation from Huddle Ventures, GVFL, Java Capital, IIMA Ventures, PointOne Capital and other angel investors.

Orbitt Space, a startup founded by former ISRO scientists, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. The Ahmedabad-based firm is developing electric propulsion and avionics systems for ultra low earth orbit satellites, aiming to improve satellite manoeuvrability, reduce costs, and enable advanced earth observation and communication missions.

Nabhdrishti Aerospace, a pioneering startup specialising in advanced propulsion and power generation, has raised USD 3 million in funding led by Accel, with participation from existing investors, including IIMA Ventures.

The use of EVs and advancement towards an electric economy, through booming sectors like EMS, semiconductors, and defence, has led to a surge in RE’s perceived importance worldwide. However, unlike oil, RE is even more geographically concentrated in terms of availability,” noted Vipul Patel, Partner, Seed Investing, IIMA Ventures.

IIMA Ventures, a technology-focused investment platform, aims to invest in 30 deep-tech startups from a ₹40 crore corpus under its partnership with Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi).

Early-stage venture capital platform IIMA Ventures plans to double its pre-seed and seed investment cheques up to $500,000 compared with the usual amounts of $50,000 to $200,000, top officials at the firm said. “Startups in the pre-seed and seed stage often require a continuum of capital ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 to truly unlock their potential," Priyanka Chopra, chief executive and managing partner at IIMA Ventures, told Mint, explaining the firm's rationale. “By expanding our investment capacity, we’re better positioned to meet founders where they are and fuel their growth from day zero."

IIMA Ventures, set up at IIM Ahmedabad in 2002, backed ideaForge as an early investor, and exited following its initial public offering in 2023. IIMA Ventures has also invested in Nabhdrishti Aerospace during its pre-seed round in 2024 and seed round this year.

With the conclusion of its third cohort, IIMA Ventures has now supported over 35 startups through this program, including past participants such as Third Wave Coffee, SatSure, ScrapUncle, Joyspoon, Riskcovry, Toprankers, Roopya, Credin, Heelium and others.

IOTA Diagnostic, a medtech startup backed by IIMA Ventures, has received an Indian Patent for its M-Strip, an innovative cervical cancer screening test that uses menstrual blood as a biospecimen.

Key sectors such as deeptech, AI, and mobility are attracting attention, particularly those contributing to traditionally closed industries like defence and aerospace.

In an interview with businessline, Priyanka Agarwal Chopra, Managing Partner at IIMA Ventures, explains the firm’s investment thesis and backing entrepreneurs developing disruptive solutions

After working with big corporations and smaller companies for a decade, Priyanka Agarwal Chopra discovered a deep passion for building businesses. Read more at: https://yourstory.com/herstory/2024/07/this-woman-is-building-the-future-by-supporting-startups

Peer-to-peer lending (P2PL) offers a promising solution to India’s gendered credit gap. By bypassing traditional banking barriers, P2PL provides flexible, accessible loans tailored to rural women entrepreneurs, fostering financial inclusion and supporting their business growth and resilience

Educators can create learning experiences that are not only educational but help students become more self-aware and ethically driven

About one in three women in India are a part of the Indian workforce. When we peel this (first layer of data) a little further we find that while about 35% of rural women are currently in the workforce, this number is much smaller for women in our cities – 20.7%.

IIMA Ventures and Google for Startups have partnered to launch AI Academy India 2024, selecting 22 AI startups from Gujarat for its first cohort

Consumer Houseware startup, Basil has raised ₹3.6 crore seed funding co-led by IIMA Ventures (formerly IIMA-CIIE) and Appreciate Capital.

Female micro entrepreneurs in India lack an ecosystem of resources to build and navigate their entrepreneurial journey. Enterprise credit is the immediate way forward.

Many of these women investors bring years of experience to the table and have today emerged as role models for the country’s youth. However, things were not the same a few years ago, the founder of She Capital Anisha Singh told Inc42.

Centered at IIM-A’s knowledge-based entrepreneurship hub, the programme accentuated the melding of academic institutions, organizations of the state, and venture capitalists in the progression and growth of initial stage start-ups.

With the raised funds, the Gurugram-based platform aims to expand Curelo's footprint, standardise unorganised labs, and increase its patient base in the coming year.

Curelo, the innovative health-tech platform founded by Laparoscopic Surgeon Dr Arpit Jayswal, has secured a significant boost with a strategic investment from cricketer, Shreyas Iyer. The entire round consists of Rs 10 crore where apart from Shreyas Iyer, the team got investments from IIMA Ventures, renowned industry experts like Tarun Katial (Founder of Zee 5) and family offices in US.

The entire round consists of INR 10 Cr where apart from Shreyas Iyer, the team got investments from IIMA Ventures, renowned industry experts like Tarun Katial (Founder of Zee 5) and family offices in US.

Founded in 2021 by Sonam Kothari and Abhishek Sen, Butterfly Learnings provides individualized therapy regimens and comprehensive support for children and families facing challenges related to neurodiversity.

Led by Insitor Impact Asia Fund and Enzia Ventures, the round also saw participation from IIMA Ventures, Foundation Botnar, 9 Unicorns and Venture Catalysts

The startups were selected on the basis of a three days bootcamp held in Indore where the startups were trained in various sessions like business modelling, unit economics, B2G sales, applying for government tenders, etc

Nabhdrishti Aerospace, a deep-tech start-up pioneering indigenous gas turbine engine development, has raised Rs 3 crore in a funding round led by IIMA Ventures (formerly IIMA-CIIE).

IIMA Ventures has been an active investor in the healthcare sector and has invested in startups such as Biosense, Forus Health, Mestastop, 5C Network, and Onward Assist.

Revidd, an AI-driven video streaming solution company, announces a product which will enable broadcasters to launch their own Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) channels in under five minutes.

During the program, startups will focus on various challenges, including but not limited to hiring, attrition, founder's leadership abilities, culture-building, compensation and benefits, and performance management and appraisals.

IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE.CO and SIDBI have partnered to establish a pre-seed fund, especially for deep-tech start-ups. The MoU signed between the two organisations laid the foundation for the fund with a total corpus of ₹40 crore, equally contributed by both SIDBI and CIIE.CO.

Equity Investment by three incoming investors; led by Marwah Sports, CIIE.CO and Faad Network. With more than 100k combined downloads from PlayStore and AppStore, the gamers’ social network showcases its commitment to solution-driven experiences

In 2022, the Indian government officially recognised esports as a sport, placing it on equal footing with mainstream sports like cricket and football. In the same year, esports debuted as an official medal sport at the Asian Games and as a pilot event at the Commonwealth Games. The Indian DOTA 2 (a multiplayer battle arena video game) team created history by winning bronze at the first Commonwealth Esports Championship held in Birmingham.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Inclusion Index for 2022 shows an improvement to 56.4 from 53.9 in 2021 across indices like access, usage, and equality. Despite the rise, there’s the scope of much more improvement when it comes to extending financial services to the unbanked population across India. It was to make a difference that CIIE.CO set up the Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) in 2018 as a full-stack solution to solve the problem of financial exclusion in India.

Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE.CO), the startup incubator of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, will support over 100 early-stage craft startups by 2025.

The concept of startup incubators might not be new, but the newfound interest in these centres continues to grow. Just like parents help a child learn how to walk, startup incubation centres enable a startup to nurture its idea and make it into a reality.

Raising early-stage funds is an uphill task for deep-tech startups. The first product is often expensive to build and takes years to launch. Not many are willing to back such bold startups until they make a breakthrough in the technologies they are building. It was this that led to the launch of IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship Continuum (CIIE.CO)-backed early-stage venture firm Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) in 2018. It was meant to provide pre-Series A and Series-A funding to deeptech and IP-focused startups, which remain outside the profile and deal flow of most venture capital (VC) funds at their initial stages.t the next billion internet users.

The legal system of any country is among one of its distinguishing features. As an industry, the legal domain has been around for centuries. It is a human-centric and process-driven sector that has historically operated in a purely physical format with the additional weight of extensive documentation.

(PTI) Over 52 percent of gig workers or contract employees feel that their work environment makes it challenging for them to upskill or find new job opportunities, according to a report.

(PTI) Over 52 percent of gig workers or contract employees feel that their work environment makes it challenging for them to upskill or find new job opportunities, according to a report.

CIIE.CO’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) announced the sixth cohort of Financial Inclusion (FI) Lab to support innovations that aid in making mainstream financial products more inclusive for low-and-middle-income households and women.

The podcast features bite-sized conversations with the builders and makers of Bharat, like Dr. Pramod Varma from EkStep, Dr. Vivek Raghavan from EkStep Foundation, and Sateesh Palagiri from NPCI among others.

Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator programme, which was launched in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE.CO has chosen 10 sustainability tech startups to help them become market-ready and scale commercially, among 80-plus applicants.