India's biggest incubation hub will be launched in Hyderabad by the year-end or early next year, Telangana's Information Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao announced Wednesday.
The Telangana government is developing the hub in collaboration with International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, Indian School of Business (ISB) and NALSAR University of Law.
T-Hub, as the incubation centre will be known, is coming up at IIIT campus. The facility will be spread over 80,000 square feet and can accommodate 400 start-ups. The first phase will be ready by year-end or January-February next year and he claimed that this itself will be India's biggest incubation hub.
The minister said ISB would provide business mentoring, IIIT technology mentoring while NALSAR would help in intellectual property and related areas.
Talking to reporters while announcing 'The August Fest', the country's biggest seed fund event, the minister said under the second phase the government would build a standalone facility. With three lakh sqft areas, it can accommodate 1,500 companies.
"We plan to bring all start-up programmes under one roof," he said.
The proposed hub will ensure infrastructure, support services and funds for the startups.
"Through the incubation centre, we want to give a platform to the youth who have innovative ideas. We don't want aspiring and budding entrepreneurs to be bogged down with the legal, accounting, office space management, mentoring support and funding," he said.
With the vision to make Hyderabad start-ups capital, the government plans to attract angel investors and venture capitalists to Hyderabad through investment meets.
As a precursor to the T-Hub, the city will host 'The August Fest' Aug 30 and 31 ISB.
Billed as the biggest ever start-up festival around creativity and entrepreneurship, the second edition is expected to attract 1,500 start-ups and more than 100 investors, VCs and others from across India.
The minister said 100 start-ups would pitch for funding and 25 would get instant funding at the one of its kind event, which will bring TiE Hyderabad, Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA), NASSCOM and IIIT on one platform.
"With crawls, talks, pitches, instant funding, films, music, fashion and more, it is going to be an unforgettable experience for the participants," said Suresh Perugu of Eat, Sleep, Drink (ESD) Startups, a non-profit organization, which came out with the idea of 'The August Fest' last year to help start-ups.
The first edition last year had attracted 500 start-ups. This year many organizations and the Telangana government have come forward to support the event.
