Startups Key To Telangana’S $1-Trn GDP By 2047

The buzz around innovation and startups is not new to Hyderabad city in Telangana.Key reason for this rapid growth of Telangana and its capital city is due to the enterprising nature of its people and availability of adequate talent pool in the State. With almost 500 engineering colleges both govt and private put together, the State’s talent pool is unmatched in the entire country. With key skill development interventions both at ITI and polytechnic level, the State’s innovation index is growing strength to strength.

Telangana’s innovation landscape is supported by a suite of incentives such as 50 per cent VAT/CST reimbursement for seven years, power cost rebates, and a 25 per cent land cost rebate up to $12,000, cementing the State’s top ranking in India for ease of doing business (EoDB). Telangana is India’s newest State formed in 2014. Its capital, Hyderabad, serves as the driving force behind its flourishing tech landscape, ranking at number 5 among the Indian ecosystem in The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024 (GSER 2024).

Hyderabad is home to a vibrant community of incubators, accelerators, and venture capital (VC) firms, including T-Angel, T-Hub, We-Hub, CII-CIES, DLabs (by Indian School of Business), and IIT-Hyderabad Foundation. T-Hub’s Innovate Telangana aims to spotlight and scale top startups in Telangana. Telangana State Innovation Cell’s Intinta Innovator programme identifies and nurtures grassroots innovators across Telangana.

Several Telangana-based startups have garnered over $100 million in funding since 2014, including Greenko Group, Zenoti, Skyroot, SpandanaSphoorty, and Smartron. Four Telangana startups were among the 20 winners of National Startup Awards 2023: Axial Aero (Defense), Jiva Business Ventures (Insurtech), Vividminds Technologies (Deeptech), and Autocracy Machinery (Agritech).

T-Hub as India’s premiere innovation hub is accelerating the growth of over 2,000 startups. T-Works, India’s largest prototyping centre and the upcoming IMAGE Tower is testimony of the State’s proactive and visionary leadership to promote innovation and bringing startup ideas to product reality. Last year, in 2024, Hyderabad Angels Fund launched its first VC fund with a $12.1 million corpus and $6 million greenshoe option, targeting up to $604,000 investments in 20 tech and AI-driven startups at early stages. Renewable energy solutions platform Fourth Partner Energy raised $110 million in August 2023. Fintech firm Vivifi India Finance secured $75 million in a January 2024 Series B round, reaching a $150 million valuation.

The State Government’s focus on AI and emerging technologies is pioneered by the recently held AI Summit with the theme AI for all.

CII’s Centre of Excellence on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup at Hyderabad is a testimony of the Telangana State’s proactive ecosystem to support, nurture and solve industry problem statements among other innovations.

I am personally confident that Telangana will continue to innovate and roll out attractive policies to make Telangana a trillion-dollar economy by 2047 and the contribution of startups will be a sustainable one.

(The author is Chairman, CII Telangana)