T-Hub, which leads India’s innovation ecosystem, today announced its partnership with Pontaq, a Cross Border Innovation Fund investing in early-stage technology businesses across UK, India, USA and Canada. With this collaboration, T-Hub and Pontaq aim to support technology-driven startups and enable a holistic innovation ecosystem in the country.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between MSR (Mahankali Srinivas Rao), CEO, T-Hub and Prem Barthasarathy, Managing Partner, Pontaq. The signing took place on the sidelines of T-Hub’s new innovation campus inauguration.
Under this one-year agreement, T-Hub will provide office space to Pontaq at T-Hub’s new building, the world’s largest innovation campus, and establish its branch in Hyderabad. In addition to this, Pontaq will be an investment partner to T-Hub in the UK-India corridor to enable startups incubated in T-Hub to expand into the UK markets. Aligning T-Hub’s idea of 6 Ms (Mentors, Market, Motivation, Manpower, Money, and Methodologies) and 2Ps (Partnerships and Policy Advisory), the partnership will open funding avenues for Indian entrepreneurs and connect them with talented innovators from across the globe.
MSR (Mahankali Srinivas Rao), CEO, T-Hub, said, “We are bullish on creating a strong funding ecosystem for our entrepreneurs, and this collaboration is a testimonial. T-Hub and Pontaq are working towards the common goal of unlocking more growth and funding opportunities for startups in India as well as the UK. We are hopeful that this partnership will strengthen the India-UK collaboration and spur the next wave of leading tech companies from both regions to cater to the global markets.”
Prem Barthasarathy, Managing Partner, Pontaq, said, “We are thrilled about the prospects that lay ahead as part of our expansion into Telangana. We are extremely pleased about the speed at which the state of Telangana and T-Hub, under the leadership of Hon’ble minister of IT Mr KT Rama Rao, have enabled both our and two of our portfolio companies, Myneibo – the market for home business and Maxbyte Technologies – Digitising factories, entry into Telangana – all in 6 weeks. Our two portfolio companies are to recruit up to 20 people in year 1 and estimate the creation of ~5000 local jobs in a year. At Pontaq, we have already invested in 4 companies within Telangana and aim to invest in at least 5 more companies in the state before the end of the year.“
T-Hub and Pontaq will take steps to expose technologies and products developed by innovative startups from both countries for cross-border innovation and deal flow. This partnership will also provide an opportunity to the investee companies of Pontaq both in India and the UK, to set up a base of operations in the state and utilise the robust ecosystem of T-Hub. With such partnerships, T-Hub continues to work towards boosting the investment landscape of the Indian ecosystem across borders.
Till now, T-Hub has provided market access to 300+ Indian startups with 18+ international interventions It has conducted more than 10 market access programs and facilitated 200+ international startups from more than 42 countries. T-Hub will continue to drive collaboration between startups and leading innovation ecosystems across the world, providing global market-access opportunities to startups.