T-Hub targets 3x increase in support for tech startups, CEO says

Hyderabad based innovation platform T-Hub targets supporting over 6,000 young tech startups in the next five years, generating over 50,000 jobs.

Founded in 2015, T-Hub has traversed a long way in nurturing tech startups from the idea stage. The goal, now, is to build sustainable businesses, according to its chief executive officer.

At the fireside chat of DevSparks Hyderabad 2024, YourStory's event focused on the developer ecosystem, T-Hub CEO Srinivas Rao Mahankali said, “We always felt that there has to be an environment that can create an innovation ecosystem to nurture startups.”

T-Hub has supported over 2,000 startups over the last nine years which have cumulatively raised $2.5 billion in funding and enabled the creation of around 25,000 jobs.

Mahankali said T-Hub is targeting a $5 billion fund raise cumulatively by the tech startups from their platform over the next five years. He also highlighted how there were just less than 50 startups with three incubators in the state of Telangana in 2015, which have now risen to over 7,000 startups and 77 incubators.

The T-Hub CEO emphasised that their programmes are not limited just to the state or the country, but also internationally. The platform has built linkages with similar counterparts or governments in countries like the US, UK and Australia to help tech startups from T-Hub expand internationally.

Over the years, T-Hub has enlarged its scope of activity where it provides end-to-end support to startups, which begins with facilitating the co-working space, going all the way to providing access to funding. The platform has also built its own networks of investors and mentors.

Mahankali said T-Hub also has specialised programmes for tech startups across segments, including spacetech, mobility, healthcare, defence, semiconductor, drones, and robotics, to name a few. The platform engages with them through the cohort model or through setting up centres of excellence.

T-Hub not only supports startups at the idea stage itself, but also has a programme to accelerate the growth of those startups which are revenue generating.

A critical area of focus for T-Hub now is to ensure higher survival rates for the tech startups that it is engaged with. The CEO remarked that on average, about 10% of startups survive to become a sustainable business, but in their case the percentage is about 25-26%.

“We not only want to create sustainable startups but also help them scale, which provides jobs and generates value,” Mahankali said.

T-Hub is a partnership between the state government and three academic bodies operating as a not-for-profit entity. However, the CEO remarked that it is a self sustaining organisation generating its own cash flow.