Google launches its first Indian startup hub in Hyderabad; Revanth Reddy announces a ₹1,000 crore fund

The initiative aims to nurture product-focused AI startups, with the ambitious goal of creating 100 unicorns by 2034

Revanth Reddy Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy

The Telangana government announced an Rs 1,000 crore startup fund of funds on Wednesday. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy made the announcement while inaugurating the Google for Startups (GfS) hub at T-Hub in Hyderabad. This is Google’s first hub in India and the fifth in the world.

Addressing the young innovators, the chief minister insisted that they aim at bigger targets. “The next Google should be born from here, in Hyderabad; if not Google, at least you should build a $1-billion company, a unicorn. We should aim to build at least 100 unicorns by 2034 to make Telangana a $1-trillion economy,” he stated.

For the GfS hub, Google has partnered with Telangana’s T-Hub, the state’s major incubation hub. As part of the collaboration, the company will use the T-Hub campus as its base and incubate the product-focused AI startups from Telangana by providing a year-long dedicated coworking space, hands-on mentoring, AI technologies and global networking opportunity through the Google for Startups network, said a statement from the tech giant.

Speaking at the event, Arjit Sarker, Google site head, Hyderabad, said that selected startups would get access to Google’s technologies across AI/ML, product development, user experience, mentorship in marketing and a global network. “Bring up any deep tech problem, and we will find you the help. We want the startups to solve the bigger problems,” the Google official said while emphasising the scale.

The chief minister told young innovators that it was important to set goals that seem impossible. “We now want startups that quickly grow into unicorns. To make Telangana a Rs 3-trillion economy, we need to develop a massive startup ecosystem,” he explained.

Finance Minister Sridhar Babu, who spoke at the event, also emphasised the importance of thinking big. “We have a dream of a Rs 3-trillion economy, and many are questioning it. But without a dream, we cannot move ahead,” he noted. The minister asked the innovators to benefit from the increased availability of funds for the startups in the state.

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