3 IIT Madras alumni will pump $5 million in their new innovation centre in campus to turn entrepreneurial ideas into reality

Backed by a strong profile of entrepreneurial professionals, a new centre for innovation and entrepreneurship in IIT Madras - Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre - will nurture three entrepreneurial initiatives every year by providing them all the assistance they need to turn their ideas into reality.

Three IIT Madras alumni — Jaishree Deshpande, her husband who is an Indian American venture capitalist Gururaj Deshpande and S. Kris Gopalakrishnan — have together launched this centre as a future hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. They will be funding $500,000 per year over the next 5 years. The centre will perform the role of an angel investor. Every program the centre seeds will ultimately run on its own if it turns successful.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said that the Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre was being created at the right time to give a big fillip to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in IIT.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Axilor Ventures, said the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at IIT Madras will be enhanced by the opportunity to learn from the global network of such centres.

“Also, the research community will get the opportunity to collaborate with other researchers across the network, including market and funding access,” he said.