T-Hub Announces Second Batch of its Startup Funding Program ‘T-Angel’ and Invites Applications

Hyderabad:  T-Hub, which leads India’s pioneering technology innovation ecosystem, today announced the launch of its redesigned funding program T-Angel, to cater to the startups funding needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. T-Angel will be supported by Angel Investors who will collectively invest up to INR 50 lacs in each of the qualified startups.

T-Angel is a 45-days acceleration program. 15-20 tech startups with the leading-edge solutions in the various sectors will be shortlisted. The program for the second batch of chosen startups will commence in July 2021. Startups will be shortlisted from applications received after an extensive screening process by a committee of investors and mentors. Applications will open today https://bit.ly/3vzdbuq, and will close on 30 June 2021. The program will focus on understanding and resolving two key constraints or pain points of a startup’s business operations that are hindering their chances of raising capital. Startups across India can apply to be a part of the program.

Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub, said, “Even though there has been a substantial increase in startups’ ability to raise funds, only a small percentage of them are successful in raising funding from angels. We realized that the success percentage can considerably increase if entrepreneurs are aware of what the angel investors are looking for. T-Angel’s existence has been smartly tailored to solve this issue, T-Hub believes that there are plenty of technology startups that are investment-ready provided they learn the fundamentals from an investor perspective. With startups from the previous batch raising funds, the program has bridged a good percentage of gap between the investors and the startups.”

During the program, T-Hub will do an in-depth assessment of the startup’s business plan. Based on this, a customized work plan will be developed for each of the startups, with specific interventions. Post that, the shortlisted startups will undergo intensive training of five online sessions of two hours each from subject matter experts/consultants who will help in making them investment ready. However, the frequency of consultations will depend on various factors and will be jointly decided by the program and participating startups. The outcome of this will be a refined business plan and investor pitch deck.

A five-member Investment Committee (IC) will evaluate onboarded startups and decide on the investments. Additionally, other investor members of this program can also join the IC deliberations. The INR 50 lakhs will be invested in three tranches.

Benefits that the startups will get from the program:

• Guidance to solve major pain points concerning their business operations through virtual group learning sessions and detailed curriculum.
• Two-day boot camp at the T-Hub to finalize pitch deck, presentation skills and overall Go-To-Market plans.
• One-on-one assistance on refining the business plan and investor pitch deck and rehearsing pitch to investors.
• Demo Day at T-Hub to showcase the startups which includes Investor Committee meetings and closing the funding.

Benefits that the investors will get from the program:

• One-on-one connect with 15-20 high potential startups.
• Improved chances of exceptional returns from the investment.
• Three tranches of investments to eliminate risk factors.

The startups must meet the following eligibility criteria to apply:

• Should be an early-stage startup.
• Should have a Market Viable Product (MVP) or prototype or have done a pilot.
• Should be a company incorporated and operating in India.
• Should be a company that develops technology (software or hardware) or employs technology to change the way a traditional business or set of business operations is carried out.

The first batch of startups from the T-Angel program received strong support in terms of refining their business model and investor pitches. This enabled selected startups with innovative solutions to raise funds, despite the ongoing pandemic, from key investors like TechStars, Lets Venture, and Phoenix Business Solutions. The program not only helped them with the investor connects, but startups have also raised over INR 10 Cr funds since the end of the program.

For more information about the program, visit https://t-hub.co/T-angel/ .

Commentaries from startups and investors of the last batch:

1. Pallav Bajjuri, Founder and CEO of Kahaniya said, “We were part of the T-Angel program and it has been a fantastic ride. The program has helped us understand how pitching works and refined our pitch deck. It has helped us in refining our financial model, our business model, how to build a team.”
2. Vamsi Kotte, CEO of Syntizen said, “It has been a wonderful journey on being part of the T-Angel program. We got a lot of mentoring from the T-Angel team, mainly on how to prepare the pitch deck, the business models, how to manage the accounting, the GST compliance and learnings on every side of organizing or running a company.”
3. Rathnakar Samavedam, Investment Director of Hyderabad Angels said, “T-Hub and Hyderabad Angels has been a great combination for the last six years and both of us are working to foster an innovation ecosystem in Telangana. Hyderabad Angels have been started by marquee entrepreneurs in Hyderabad, and some of our members are also on the board of the T-Hub as of today. T-Hub is doing a lot of good things for the Hyderabad startup ecosystem and Hyderabad investment system. For us, a good number of deals are coming from T-Hub today and we are trying to engage, invest with them and nurture them by mentoring them. Hyderabad Angels is actively collaborating with T-Hub through T-Angel to see how the synergies can be taken to the next level.
4. Vikrant Varshney, Co-founder and Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund said, “Before we launched SucSEED Indovation fund, we were an sector agnostic Angel Network and have been supporting startups from the various sectors. With Indovation Fund, we have 6 Sectors to focus upon, with EdTech, FinTech, HealthTech and Security RegTech being our dominant focus areas.I’ve been also personally involved with T-Hub for the last three years as a mentor and have seen the journey of startups at T-Hub and how the quality has been improving. T-Angel is a good program, which is getting startup founders investment-ready by helping them understand it from the eyes of investors on what they need to see in the Businesses and in their pitch deck for investors to make easier decision making for investments. I wish all the success to T-Hub to help to see this through.”