Hyderabad: Telangana government-supported ecosystem builder T-Hub on Thursday announced the launch of its redesigned funding program ‘T-Angel,’ to cater to the startups funding needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program according to T-Hub will be supported by Angel Investors who will collectively invest up to Rs 50 lakh for each of the qualified startups.
The T-Angel is a 45-days acceleration program for chosen startups set to commence in July 2021. T-Hub claims that 15-20 tech beginners with leading-edge solutions in various sectors will be shortlisted from applications received after an extensive screening process by a committee of investors and mentors. Startups across India can apply for the program on https://bit.ly/3vzdbuq, which will close on June 30.
“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,” Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub said.
He added that T-Angel’s existence has been smartly tailored to solve this issue and that 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 previous batches raising funds, the program has bridged a good percentage of gap between the investor and the startups,” Narayan said.
During the program, T-Hub is set to do an in-depth assessment of the startup’s business plan and based on this, a customized work plan will be developed for each of the startups, with specific interventions. After this, the shortlisted startups will undergo intensive training of five online sessions of two hours each from subject matter experts or consultants who will help in making their investment-ready according to T-Hub.
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.
According to T-Hub, 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 Rs 50 lakh will be invested in three tranches.
As for the benefits that the startups will get from the program, they will get 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 and much more.
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 connections, but startups have also raised over INR 10 Cr funds since the end of the program according to T-Hub.
The eligibility criteria for the startups include that they 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 in India and should be a company that develops technology(hardware or software) or employs technologies to change the way a traditional business or set of business operations is carried out.