T-Hub shifts focus to corporate innovation

Hyderabad: About 80 per cent of the $80 million funding raised by 75 start-ups has come from the corporate innovation programme at T-Hub. The remaining 54 start-ups have raised $12 million over the past three years.

T-Hub is shifting focus to corporate innovation and has been in talks with several companies as funding is a major issue for start-ups. T-Hub CEO Ravi Narayan said the focus is corporate innovation and that he has been in talks with various companies. “The number of start-ups applying for the programme is much higher. We are looking to bring in a lot more corporates. Every single day I meet at least one or two corporates that want to start something,” Mr Narayan said.

While T-Hub has often stated that corporate innovation is a win-win for start-ups and companies, as the company need not spend heavily on innovation by dedicating personnel for this purpose and start-ups will be paid and get exposure.

Through these programmes entrepreneurs get access to the highest level in the company, which otherwise would be very difficult.

Mr Hasan Ali Khan, co-founder of the start-up Merxius, said, “We were part of the Boeing and Facebook innovation programme, which otherwise we would have found difficult to get access to directly. We could speak to high level people with complete involvement of all parties. Boeing was a potential customer and an Indian start-up would not have got access to its very high-level personnel this easily.”

Entrepreneurs who have experience of the programme call for more streamlining of the programme as there are procedural hiccups.

An entrepreneur who underwent the corporate innovation programme said on condition of anonymity, “Unless you are very well aligned with the company’s vision, you will be distracted by your own start-up’s objectives. Some start-ups had to drop out of the corporate innovation programme. This programme is not unique to T-Hub; others who are running it have a very clear way of extracting objective from corporates. The innovation programme needs to get the intention of the corporate upfront.”

In his opinion, the programme shouldn’t continue as corporates do what they want to do. However, another entrepreneur noted that the programme should continue but needs to be more structured. Mr Jignesh Talasila of Loop Reality, who was part of the innovation programme with Facebook, said, “Corporates want innovation, but the excitement at the beginning is not long-lasting and almost dies down. T-Hub in its corporate programmes should focus on logical conclusions and sustenance. They should continue this programme in a way that it is helpful for alumni and new start-ups.”