CENTRE FOR INNOVATION
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AT IIIT HYDERABAD
Fostering DeepTech Innovation
Cover story
BioAsia 2026 | Shaping the Future of TechBio Innovation
BioAsia 2026, Asia’s flagship life sciences and healthcare summit, was held in Hyderabad on 17–18 February 2026, convening global leaders from industry, academia, policy, and investment. Centered on the theme “TechBio Unleashed: AI, Automation & the Biology Revolution,” the summit spotlighted the powerful convergence of computing, biology, and intelligent automation in redefining healthcare innovation. From AI-driven drug discovery to automated diagnostics and next-generation health platforms, the discussions underscored how deep-tech is accelerating the future of life sciences.
At the summit, CIE IIIT Hyderabad showcased a cutting-edge portfolio of health-tech startups powered by AI and automation, alongside breakthrough innovations emerging from IIIT-H research centres. The platform enabled meaningful conversations with industry leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners, opening new avenues for collaboration and translational impact. As Asia’s premier life sciences forum, BioAsia 2026 once again reinforced its role as a catalyst where research, entrepreneurship, and global partnerships come together to shape the future of healthcare.
Happenings @ CIE
Novartis Leadership
CIE IIIT Hyderabad recently collaborated with Novartis to explore the synergies between their respective ecosystems. As part of the interaction, Novartis leadership visited the CIE IIIT Hyderabad workspace to understand the incubation model and innovation environment. The engagement led to meaningful discussions around emerging technologies, signaling a promising step towards deeper industry–academia collaboration.
Cipher Sprint | Strengthening Cybersecurity Innovation
As part of Cipher Sprint, a national cyber innovation challenge under the SHIELD ecosystem, IIIT Hyderabad shortlisted 17 finalist teams working on practical cybersecurity solutions. These teams presented their work at the SHIELD Conclave 2026, engaging with experts from government, law enforcement, and industry. The initiative highlighted solutions grounded in real-world security challenges and reflected CIE’s continued focus on enabling research-led, application-driven innovation in the cybersecurity domain.
Spotlight
TM2Space Raises $5M Seed Funding to Advance Space Computing
TakeMe2Space, a startup supported through CIE IIIT Hyderabad’s ecosystem, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Chiratae Ventures, with participation from Unicorn India Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, and Seafund. The Hyderabad-based space-tech startup is building indigenously developed, compute-focused satellites aimed at democratizing access to space-based computing. This milestone marks an important step in strengthening India’s growing private space ecosystem while enabling researchers, startups, and enterprises to leverage space infrastructure more easily.
Call For Applications
RootnodeA 3-month program that connects startups with IIIT Hyderabad’s research experts to tackle tech challenges. Get focused guidance, tech validation, and research-backed product support to strengthen your innovation.
DT CoWorkzCollaborate in a research-driven space for Gen AI, NLP, Robotics, and ML startups. Access IIITH research, expert advisory, and a thriving innovation ecosystem.
Meity TIDE 2.0
CIE-IIITH presents MeitY TIDE 2.0, a golden opportunity for trailblazing minds in AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT, Data Science, and Robotics. Unlock mentorship and funding up to INR 7 Lakhs!
In News
CIE: Changing the city’s innovation DNA
Founded in 2008, when India’s start-up ecosystem was still nascent, the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT Hyderabad has steadily grown into one of the country’s largest academic technology incubators. Spread across a 40,000 sq ft facility, CIE today houses 80 plus active start-ups and operates three focused incubator
IIITH uses genetics, Al to detect cancer early
Hyderabad: At a time when cancer care is shifting from one-size-fits-all treatment to precision medicine, researchers at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, are weaving together genetics, epigenetics and Al to push the frontiers of early detection and personalised therapy.
Our
Impact
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15cr+
Invested in startups
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40+
Startup Research engagement
CIE at IIIT Hyderabad is a technology incubator with rich experience in seeding, nurturing, and growing deep-tech startups in emerging segments like med-tech, tech4social, visual informatics, data engineering, and machine learning, language technologies, gaming, and robotics. CIE IIITH, with a research-led innovation as its primary mandate, focuses on amplifying technology through research collaboration and co-creation models for startups to work with research groups at IIITH.
Under the CIE umbrella, there are 3 active incubators: the Deeptech incubator (Avishkar), the Medtech incubator (Ojas) & the Social incubator (AIC). CIE also includes enabling labs such as a well-equipped Maker Lab, a Medical Electronics Calibration Lab, and a AR/VR lab. IIIT Hyderabad also includes Product Labs to seed new products from research — a pre-incubation program to seed startups from research.
In the past 15 years we have grown to be the largest academic incubator in the country, have housed over 450+ startups that have raised about 250+Cr funding, and created over 2500+ jobs. Today there are very active programs focused on emerging technology startups, research-based startups, medical technologies, and social technology startups.
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