UChicago India Deep Tech Accelerator
The India Deep Tech Accelerator, powered by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, aims to help Indian deep tech founders translate breakthrough innovations into globally competitive companies.
Developed by the Polsky Center in collaboration with leading Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) innovation networks and incubators, including SINE at IIT Bombay, FITT at IIT Delhi, and IIT Madras Research Park, the program focuses on supporting globally ambitious, IIT-affiliated startups as they sharpen customer positioning, strengthen investor narratives, and build momentum for near-term commercialization and financing milestones in the United States and other global markets.
Support will be provided by various investors, including the India Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA), with over $2.5B in committed capital from its industry-led consortium of investors, corporates, and ecosystem stakeholders. Aroa Venture Partners will serve as an early conviction capital partner for select companies emerging from the accelerator, committing up to $200,000 per startup. Additionally, the UChicago-affiliated deep tech fund Harper Court Ventures and its Silicon Valley-based parent fund MFV Partners will support startups in the cohort with mentorship and potential investment. Finally, the deep-tech venture capital firm Speciale Invest, founded with the singular vision of backing and building India’s deep-science and deep-technology startups at the intersection of academia and industry will support the program.
The accelerator will run as a 10-week program from April through June 2026 and will be structured for a cohort of up to 15 startups through targeted workshops, coaching, and strategic customer and investor connections. The accelerator is also expected to align with key showcase moments, including an India showcase and a Bay Area showcase for top-performing companies in June. Startups participating will be expected to demonstrate strong commercial potential, global ambition, and readiness to pursue U.S. market opportunities.
Key Dates and Deadlines
Application Deadline
The 2026 application deadline has passed.
Application and Eligibility
The program is open to early-stage, innovation-driven deep tech startups affiliated with Indian academic and research institutions, including ventures led by faculty, students, and alumni.
Eligible companies typically demonstrate:
- U.S. subsidiary or entity formed or planned during the program
- Products or services relevant to U.S. market
- Globally ambitious startups with a path to U.S. market entry
- Preparing to raise an institutional or strategic investment round in the next 6-12 months
- Founder commitment to engage consistently over the 10-week program
Partners and Sponsors
ACADEMIC PARTNERS
SINE is a broad-spectrum technology business incubator that has supported several early-stage startups across various technology domains. Backed by key government departments, including DST, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Technology Development Board (TDB), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) – Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Defence (MoD), and Ministry of Power (MoP), through their numerous schemes for startups. Additionally, SINE collaborates with international organizations and partners with corporates for their open innovation needs and CSR initiatives, further strengthening the ecosystem for startups.
Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi has been the vanguard of knowledge transfer activities from academia since its inception in 1992. This techno-commercial organization from academia is counted amongst the successful such organizations. FITT provides superior program management services and is steadily increasing its operational landscape. The varied roles of FITT can be seen in enabling innovations and technopreneurship, business partnerships, technology development, consultancy, collaborative R&D, technology commercialization, development programs, corporate memberships, and more. These roles are necessitated by the key agenda of the Foundation to showcase the Institute’s “intellectual ware” to industry, and thereby unlock it’s knowledge base and inculcate industrial relevance in teaching and research at IIT Delhi.
India’s first university-based research park, partnering with IIT Madras. A collaborative ecosystem that connects research-driven companies, startups, academic pioneers, and students to bridge the industry-academia gap and unlock India’s deep-tech potential through focused partnerships. Reduce research-to-market cycles for scalable solutions that tackle complex challenges across multiple industries.
VENTURE PARTNERS
Aroa Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in high-growth technology and deep tech companies building for large, transformative markets in India and beyond. Founded in 2020 by Chicago Booth alum Gaurav Gulati, MBA ’08, and headquartered in Gurgaon (National Capital Region), India, Aroa partners with founders at pivotal moments as they transition from breakthrough innovation to scalable, globally competitive businesses.
India Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA)
The India Deep Tech Alliance is an industry-led consortium of investors, corporates, technology partners, and ecosystem stakeholders focused on accelerating India’s deep tech companies across AI, semiconductors, advanced computing, robotics, biotech, and more. IDTA convenes capital access, technical mentorship, market linkages, and policy engagement to help founders build globally competitive technology companies from India.
Speciale Invest is a deep-tech venture capital firm founded with the singular vision of backing and building India’s deep-science and deep-technology startups at the intersection of academia and industry. Since 2017, they have focused exclusively on frontier domains across advanced manufacturing, space, health, energy, and AI.
Harper Court Ventures and MFV Partners
Harper Court Ventures invests in transformative technologies emerging from the University of Chicago—where world-class research fuels real-world ventures. They back pre-seed startups at the frontier of quantum computing, life sciences, energy, and AI—spun out of university labs, accelerated by the Polsky Center, or founded by University of Chicago alumni. Led by Chicago Booth alum, Karthee Madasamy and managed by MFV Partners, a leading Silicon Valley deep tech fund, it is building a new engine of innovation for the Midwest—and beyond.