From start-up incubator to India's innovation hub: World's largest innovation campus T-Hub 2.0 unveiled in Hyd

Hyderabad: T-Hub unveiled the world's largest innovation campus in Hyderabad on 28 June. T-hub 2.0 was inaugurated by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

The innovation campus will act as a robust platform to elevate the stature of India's innovation ecosystem globally. T-Hub's new innovation campus is T-shaped, with a total built-up area of 5,82,689 sq. ft., making it the world's largest, the second-largest being Station F based in France.

"T-Hub has evolved from a start-up incubator to an innovation hub in India and beyond in the past six years. It has emerged as a strong organisation that is focused on outcome-driven initiatives, and it is well-positioned to back the global aspirations and ambitions of our entrepreneurs," said KCR.

He said T-Hub has become a national role model. "Phase I showed us that there is a huge demand for entrepreneurship amongst youth in India. This new facility is five times bigger. We want Telangana to be known as the start-up state of India," added KCR and pointed out that thanks to the progressive policies in the state, many start-ups have provided solutions to problems in education, agriculture, and other issues.

"The next generation of T-hub begins here today," he added.

State IT and industries minister K.T Rama Rao said over the six years, T-Hub has become a credible icon across the world for entrepreneurship and innovation. "The Telangana government's progressive start-up policies and ease of the business environment have flourished into strong partnerships with global corporations and academics. The idea of T-Hub which started as an incubation center is now the world's largest innovation hub that has scaled up over 1,000 start-ups and aims to further impact thousand more start-ups in the near future," he said.

Mahankali Srinivas Rao, the CEO of T-Hub, said T-Hub will support over 2,000 start-ups by providing them access to 6Ms – Mentors, Market, Motivation, Manpower, Money, and Methodologies – and 2Ps – Partnerships and Policy Advisory.

"T-Hub has been created with the philosophy that innovation can thrive only with collaboration. The innovation campus will bring together all the start-up ecosystem stakeholders to create sustainable businesses with a special focus on verticals like EV/ Mobility, Healthtech, Enterprise Tech, Gaming, and Artificial Intelligence. It will continue to establish Telangana as a center for technology and innovation at a global level, encouraging new technologies, guiding entrepreneurs, and creating investment opportunities," added Mr. Srinivas Rao.

T-Hub to support over 2000 start-ups

More than 200 start-ups will move to the new building from 1 July. Other partner organisations like Telangana State Innovation Cell will set up full-fledged offices in the building. The Central government's Startup India initiative will have its office and DST sanctioned Atal Innovation Mission center will also be housed in the building.

T-Hub's large-scale incubation and acceleration activities will include both early revenue and early-scale companies. The new phase of T-Hub will have an enhanced focus on internationalisation and capacity building with new foreign partnerships with Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. The new building will have the presence of international partners from Japan, Korea, and Dubai, among others.

T-Hub is spread across a total built-up area of 5,82,689 sq. ft and 10 floors. The building is a microcosm of the innovation ecosystem, which will include start-ups, corporates, investors, academia, and national and international ecosystem enablers. With an effective carpet area of 3,50,000 sq. ft, T-Hub will have six floors operations with 1,000 seats for start-ups.

On the sixth floor, 18,000 square feet are allocated to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and AIC T-Hub Foundation, an association formed at T-Hub, in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog. The seventh floor is assigned to the Department of Science and Technology's (DST) Centre of Excellence to promote artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The eighth and ninth floors are proposed for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project, along with social impact startups and young entrepreneurs (Y-Hub).

T-Hub is built on the approach of hybrid work models and new industry parameters. The design is inspired by the signature monument of Hyderabad – The Charminar. The entire building stands on four pillars as a plank, making it the longest simple cantilever structure in the whole country.