When Ather Energy makes its stock market debut this week, it won’t just be the founders or venture capitalists uncorking the champagne. Silently, but spectacularly, IIT Madras is poised to emerge as one of the biggest winners. Financial advisor Aditya Kondawar summed it up perfectly on LinkedIn: “The biggest winner in the Ather IPO is IIT-Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC)!”
Back in the early 2010s, Ather Energy, then a scrappy startup with big dreams, allotted 5% of its paid-up capital to IIT Madras’ incubation arms—IITMIC and the IITM Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI)—in return for office space, mentorship, and access to vital resources. All this for a modest investment between ₹15–29 lakh. Fast forward 11 years, and that small bet has ballooned into a jaw-dropping ₹50 crore windfall—a return between 172x and 333x, making even the most seasoned venture capitalists blush.
According to Ather’s Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), IITMIC and RTBI currently hold a combined 15.58 lakh shares. At the IPO’s upper price band of ₹321 per share, this portfolio clocks in at a valuation of ₹50 crore. Under the offer for sale (OFS), IITMIC will sell 31,050 shares while RTBI will offload 4,191 shares—just a small slice of their golden pie.
Beyond Ather, IIT Madras has been quietly building a powerhouse startup ecosystem. Kondawar notes that IITMIC boasts an 80% startup success rate—a survival statistic that leaves the typical 4–6% startup success rate in the dust. By the end of 2023, IITMIC’s portfolio included 351 deep-tech startups with a combined valuation of ₹45,000 crore (around $5.4 billion) and had generated 8,000–9,000 direct jobs. Moreover, IITMIC typically holds a 1% equity stake in many of its incubated companies, raking in ₹50–60 crore annually from these investments. A little over 25% of IITM’s 550 faculty members are actively involved in this thriving innovation hub.
Meanwhile, Ather’s other early backers are also cashing in. Tiger Global, which invested in 2015, expects an 8.3x return through its Internet Fund Pte by selling around 4 lakh shares in the OFS. Singapore’s GIC (through Caladium Investment) and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) are looking at returns of 1.6x and 1.7x respectively, after investing in 2022.
As Ather Energy cruises into its next chapter, the broader electric vehicle (EV) market is being closely scrutinized. According to Zerodha, key factors to watch for EV companies include lithium price movements (battery costs hinge on minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel), global supply chains (especially China’s dominance in battery cell production), government subsidies (which are steadily reducing), product quality (fast-charging, safety, and performance are king), demand shifts (two-wheelers must beat their fuel-powered cousins in popularity), and how companies segregate their EV and non-EV sales (for instance, TVS Motors sees 6% of its sales from EVs, but EV volumes grew 40% while petrol bikes only clocked 12% growth in 2024).
