BENGALURU, May 19 -- India's top engineering and management institutes are no longer content with merely incubating startups. Increasingly, they also want to participate in the upside created by companies emerging from their own ecosystems.

Institutions including Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Madras and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru are setting up venture funds to invest in campus-linked deeptech startups, as rising investor interest in sectors such as semiconductors, defence and spacetech pushes universities to play a larger role in the businesses they help build.

But why are they doing this now? How are these funds structured? And what kind of startups are they backing? Mint explains.

So far, IIT Bom...