Biggest incubator has international VCs to fund these firms
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Hyderabad: As the Telangana government prepares to launch the biggest incubator in the country, the T-hub, more than 500 start-ups are competing to be a part of the “incubator of incubators”, which offer mentorship, academic collaborations, seed funding, space and networking possibilities under the same roof.
Applicants, including students, young entrepreneurs and start-ups in their nascent stages, are competing for the space planned for up to 200 start-ups at the main catalyst building of the technology hub. A line-up of international venture capital companies for funding the start-ups is also in place.
Bigwigs like Sequoia, Nea, Kalaari Capital, Peepul, Sri Capital and Naya Ventures are supporting the T-hub, indicating that the start-ups will find easy access to funding with a complete eco-system in place. In India, cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and NCR are leading the start-up story; Hyderabad with the first-of-its-kind organised eco-system is aiming at leapfrogging to the front. The T-hub is slotted to be the country’s biggest innovation and incubation centre and will provide a complete eco-system.
Right from being a launch pad for entrepreneurs, to being an accelerator for the ones who already have a prototype in place to being a propeller for the ones who have developed a product and are at a marketing stage, T-hub will have it all in the 60,000 sqft at IIIT-H. A strong Hyderabad connection with the top IT companies already exists. This shows a strong possibility of the city taking a prominent position as it is already home to pharma, IT, defense establishments and premier institutions.
“Currently the startup scenario in the world is led by few countries like the US, UK, Sweden, Norway, Israel and Singapore. The places leading the start-up game have a specific set of factors in place like being supported by academic institutions playing advisory roles. We have designed the T-hub after studying the start-up eco-system of these places. Also, it is interesting to find a good number of people of Indian origin leading the start-up scenario at many of these places, but India still does not feature prominently in the game,” said information technology secretary of Telangana, Jayesh Ranjan.
Hub to raise start-ups’ success rate:
The T-hub, being launched on September 7, will bring in proper mentorship and is expected to increase the success rate of startups. One of the main reasons for at least 60 per cent of start-ups failing within the first year of launch is lack of mentorship and funds, as per industry insiders. The T-hub will address these issues by bringing in a talent pool of leading mentors in the industry from across the globe.
“On an average it is in the second or third year of college when a student hits upon an idea for innovation or entrepreneurship and sometimes remains stuck in the dilemma to choose between it and his studies. While working on the idea, the student might lose out on credits for the course. On the other hand, waiting to complete education might mean that the idea will either become redundant or someone else might implement it. In the process, the students often misses the bus; therefore the Innovation Policy charts out ‘replacement credits’ for students who innovate,” said Telangana IT secretary, Jayesh Ranjan.
The state government plans to engage venture capitalists to invest to the tune of Rs 300 crore. To begin with, the state government will provide support of Rs 35 crore for incubation funding and will raise the remaining funds through VC.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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