IIT Kanpur has launched its massive campaign — “Greater Than Us” to gear up India’s pace in the AI race.
The target is to raise $1 billion (~₹8,500+ crore) by March 2029 to bridge the gap between lab research and commercial deep tech.
This is the largest institutional fundraising drive ever attempted by an Indian university, signaling a fundamental shift in how domestic deep tech gets financed.
Early momentum backed by heavy alumni capital
With the launch, it was announced that over ₹4,000 crore has already been committed, which shows that they have already been working silently with industry leaders for months, and it is not just another scheme launched by the government. One of the largest pledges of ₹180 crore has been made by Rahul Gautam (IIT kanpur alumni & Chairman of Sheela Foam, the company behind Sleepwell & Kurl-on).
Merging the best global playbooks
The model is perhaps inspired by very successful international frameworks: MIT’s “The Engine” and Stanford’s similar programs. They provide a patient capital that helps complex lab research to translate into market-ready commercial solution that have the potential to lead markets. To put some context, MIT’s The Engine manages a $1 billion fund and its 70 portfolio companies have raised over $11 billion from the market. Stanford takes it one step further—its historic capital campaign raised over $6 billion, helping nurture a cutting edge tech ecosystem whose companies have raised over 40 billions of dollars across different sectors.
India too has seen a glimpse of what campus-led deep tech can produce. IIT Madras has been doing this quietly in the aerospace and robotics segment for quite some time, and we are now seeing companies like Agnikul Cosmos (3D-printed rocket engines), Ather, and The ePlane Company (electric flying taxis), to name a few. IIT Kanpur is taking this to a new scale and targeting semiconductors, AI, and quantum computing.
A permanent shift toward self-sustaining innovation
India spends roughly 0.65% of its GDP on R&D compared to 2.8% by China and 3.5% by the USA. That is 1/5th of the USA as a percentage of GDP. In absolute terms, the USA spends ~$800 billion vs. India’s $20–25 billion. This is just too low.
In such a dearth of R&D spend, this $1 billion USD innovation focussed fund is not life-changing, but it is a step in the right direction.
And the approach makes total sense. By pairing global philanthropy and private capital with one of India’s top tech institutes, it cuts reliance on government funding. It creates a self-sustaining system to turn lab research in AI, quantum tech, and med-tech into real commercial products right here in India.
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