What does it take to turn research into a company that customers trust?

In this press Q&A, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, joins Bhaskar Majumdar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures, and Natarajan (Nat) Malupillai, Group CEO of IIT Madras Research Park, to discuss the growth of India's deep-tech startups.

The panel discusses patient capital, opportunities in quantum technologies, student-led innovation, patents and the path from an idea to a working product. They also examine customer adoption: how large companies can work with startups, and what founders need to do to deliver dependable products.

Other topics include industry–academia collaboration, the IIT Madras Research Park, the Shakti processor and frugal research.

Recorded by UpStreamVoice.

0:00 Opening and questions on space tech and quantum
0:47 Patient capital and the Ather example
2:53 Keeping engineers in core engineering
5:11 Agnirath and student engineering projects
6:08 Quantum technologies and applications
8:12 India's opportunities in quantum
9:27 How startups are evaluated
12:46 Bhaskar Majumdar on patience and valuation
15:34 Building investable startups at IIT Madras
18:58 Patents and the patent-a-day ambition
21:48 The student innovation and entrepreneurship pathway
25:15 The next challenge: customers and purchase orders
29:58 Government and corporate customers
31:37 Buying Indian products: an anecdote
34:07 Industry–academia collaboration
36:06 The Research Park's collaboration model
38:34 Technology sovereignty, Shakti and frugal research
42:11 Frugal AI and solving specific problems
43:42 Encouraging enterprises to buy from startups
46:34 Product readiness and trust in both directions
47:37 Building customer confidence and a call to corporates

#IITMadras #Kamakoti #DeepTech #UpStreamVoice

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