Hyderabad: Startup rejig initiative draws good response

Hyderabad: Rejig.HydStartups, an initiative by the Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) and T-Incubators & Enablers to support startups in reimagining and repositioning their business model post-COVID-19 pandemic, has received more than 300 applications and 100 startups have been selected to be part of the mentoring programme, it was announced on Monday.

The three-week mentoring programme helps startups connect with investors or gain corporate market access. It is a three-pronged approach understanding the concerns of the startups with a completion of leg work assigned by the mentor, understanding the change of strategy, and a revised pitch.

The programme would culminate in the startups pitching for equity funding, collateral-free debt funding, or corporate market access.

The startups selected were from domains like life-sciences, fintech, manufacturing, agriculture, FMCG, emerging technology.

A webinar involving ecosystem catalysts was organised to understand the impact of the pandemic on the startups and expectations from the founders to become resilient.

"Hyderabad will be standing out for its city as a whole approach through this important initiative Rejig.HydStartups to support the startups in coming weeks to become resilient post-pandemic. Even the applications that we received was a truly relevant mixture of industry sectors that require immediate attention," said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Telangana government

The webinar also saw a panel discussion involving Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub & CIO of TSIC, Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder Chairman of CtrlS Datacenters, currently the President of TIE Hyderabad, Sateesh Andra, Managing Director of Endiya Partners, an established VC and investor. The panel was moderated by Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, CEO of IKP Knowledge Park.

The speakers gave their experiential insights and urged the startups to relook at their business models and be willing to reimagine during the toughest crisis.

Some of the steps founders could take range from identifying the alternate market for the existing product or service, rationalising the product or service, smart cost optimisation, to look out for answers by discussing with the customers, mentors, and investors.

One of the important mentions by all the panelists towards betterment was founders' resilience, the fact that the investments largely were done based on the strength of the business model and quality of the human capital.

Chattopadhyay said that it was a great opportunity not just for startups but also for the incubators and enablers to collectively contribute to the startup ecosystem in the times when mentor access is important for founders to get a sounding board.