SDEX’s first Cohort will select up to 15 teams and provide equity-free funding and resources of up to $100,000 to each fellow
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BL Net Mail
Early-stage venture fund Shastra VC has launched SDEX, a deep-tech fellowship to take research projects from the labs to venture-ready start-ups.
SDEX (Shastra Deep-Tech Excellence Fellowship) will be a 16-24-week fellowship aimed at accelerating deep-tech innovation across engineering and research institutions, ranging from IITs, IISc and IISERs to NITs, IIITs and other national labs.
SDEX’s first Cohort will select up to 15 teams and provide equity-free funding and resources of up to $100,000 to each fellow.
“Universities, incubators, and national programmes are making it easier than ever for research to move from lab to market, and the policy momentum in recent years shows real intent to build global frontier-tech leadership. SDEX fits perfectly into this moment – it creates a VC-led proof-to-venture bridge that helps deep-tech ideas get validated earlier and expands the pipeline of start-ups that are truly investable,” Avijeet Alagathi, Partner, Shastra VC, said.
“India has world-class deep-tech research talent across academic institutions and national labs. What has been missing is early support that turns strong research into venture-ready proof, so that more deep-tech ideas can become investable companies. SDEX is built to bridge that gap by funding early technical validation and providing close mentorship so that the best breakthroughs become companies that matter,” said Jivesh Madan, SDEX Program Lead, Shastra VC.
SDEX expands access to innovation through two pathways — a Challenge Track where fellows work on clearly defined deep-tech problems sourced from Shastra’s ecosystem, and a Frontier Track, which supports researchers exploring emerging, high-potential ideas committing to clear, testable technical goals.
Published on December 8, 2025
