The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has partnered with T-Hub to create scale up opportunities for the Hardware/IoT startups in India. As many as 10-15 startups with leading-edge solutions in mobility, energy, agriculture, aerospace, manufacturing, consumer, healthtech, medtech, smart cities and logistics and supply chain sectors will be shortlisted. T-Hub is an initiative by the Telangana government to support the startup ecosystem in Hyderabad.
The batch of startups will go through a 6 months milestone-based program with regular bootcamps and dedicated mentoring from T-Hub. The program will focus on Market readiness, product maturity and investment readiness aspects of the startups. As part of the programme, the shortlisted startups will also receive an equity-free grant. Startups can apply for the programme till 31st August,2020.
The selection criteria for the startups are as follows:
- Each startup team must have at least one full time employee.
- The product or technology the startup is offering a functionality or capability that is currently not available in any off the shelf product, or a functionality/capability that can be demonstrated to possess a significant advantage over current offerings in some aspect.
- The product or technology the startup is offering for consideration represents original ideas wholly owned with freedom to use or is licensed by the team.
- Seed/pre seed startups with a fully working prototype, with established technical capability
Fewer investors, more expensive to build MVP for a hardware project,longer time to market, difficulty to find the right talent and suitable manufacturers are some of the barriers faced by hardware startups in India.
Dr. Ajai Garg, CEO of MeitY Startup Hub said, “The Union Government has been continuously working towards strengthening the startup and innovation ecosystem of the country. MeitY Startup Hub has been set up in order to facilitate MeitY’s vision of promoting technological innovation, startups and the creation of intellectual properties. We are positive that our latest partnership with T-hub, which leads India’s pioneering innovation ecosystem, will catalyze the scale-up efforts of hardware/IoT startups in the country. It is important for us to engage the startup community and bring innovative thinking into product development that can accelerate the creation of new offerings in the hardware space.”
