T-Hub 2.0, world’s largest incubation centre, gets ready for launch in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, on June 28, will be inaugurating the new facility of the T-Hub at Raidurgam, Gachibowli on June 28. It is said to be the world’s largest incubation centre.

The first phase of the incubation programme began at IIT Hyderabad in 2015.

The new facility is built up in an area covering 3.5 lakh sqft space and it is expected to be India’s largest prototyping facility. It is built at a cost of about Rs 276 crore. The building will house more than 1,500 startups.

The programme runs on a public-private partnership between the Telangana government and three premier academic institutes – the International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H), the Indian School of Business (ISB), and the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) the University of Law.

The T-Hub has so far helped more than 1,120 startups garner about Rs 1,800 crore investment, besides providing employment to over 2,500 people in Hyderabad, according to the state government

It rents out office and meeting space, and offers services such as connections with mentors and investors, to startup companies in the technology sector.

“This (T-Hub 2.0) will be a microcosm of the innovation ecosystem which will house more than 2,000 startups, corporates, investors, academia, and national and international ecosystem enablers,” T-Hub CEO Srinivas Rao Mahankali said.

The T-Hub 2.0 building was supposed to be completed in the second half of 2019, but it was delayed due to a variety of factors, including COVID-19, which caused another two-year delay.

It is built in a T-shaped structure spread across a total built-up area of 5,82.689 sq. ft and 10 floors. With an effective carpet area of 3,50,000 sq. ft., T-Hub will have six floors (Ground 5 floors) operations with 1000 seats for startups.

On the sixth floor, 18,000 square feet are allocated to the Confederation of Indian Industry (Cl) 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 (A) 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 ‘The Charminar’ and the entire building stands on four pillars as a plank, making it the longest simple cantilever structure in the whole country, a press note from the organisation informed.

The innovation campus is equipped with world-class fixed, flexible, and private office spaces, meeting rooms, floor pantries, a cafeteria, etc. it offers two event rooms with the latest technologies for AV systems, a grand atrium with 400 seating capacity and designated areas for the corporates Centre of Excellence (CoE), who are looking to speed up and scale their innovation initiatives and an experience centre for showcasing startup innovation.

The incubator has supported more than 1800 startups and over 600 corporates like Facebook, Boeing, Otis, and Uber among others, through various programs and initiatives, the press note said.