Telangana govt to set up Rs. 600-cr VC fund for start-ups.

As it begins work on the country's biggest technology start-up hub, the Telangana government has initiated talks with venture capital funds to set up a Rs. 600-crore VC fund.

'We are going to invest in the fund ourselves with the private funds. But we don't want to take an active role in running the day-to-day operations of the VC fund. We will let the professional VC firms to the run the fund,' Telangana Information Technology Minister K Taraka Rama Rao told BusinessLine after laying the foundation stone for the first phase of the T-Hub.

'We would like to make it the Start-up Capital of the country,' the Minister said.

Besides International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-H), the T-Hub will be supported by the Indian School of Business and National University of Law (Nalsar).

The State government will spend on Rs. 35 crore on the first phase, which is expected to be completed by June. The facility, to be created at the IIIT (Hyderabad), is expected to house 400 start-ups employing 3,000 people, with 10 different incubators grooming the firms. Of these, about 100 start-ups are expected to raise the Series A (the initial) funding by 2017.

It would spend Rs. 200 crore more on the second phase at the Rayadurgam IT hub. This phase targets to house 25 incubators that can groom 1,000 start-ups with 10,000 employees.

When the two phases are completed, the T-Hub would have 3 lakh sq ft of built-up space. 'It is not just another incubator. T-Hub is expected to emerge as one of the world's largest start-up hub,' the Minister said.


HBL