Startup incubator T-Hub has entered into a strategic collaboration with telecommunication equipment major Qualcomm to expand the company’s IoT ecosystem in India. As per an MoU signed in Hyderabad on Wednesday, Qualcomm will leverage T-Hub’s infrastructure and experience as an incubator to provide startups with the required technology and skill sets.
In January 2017, Qualcomm announced an investment commitment of $8.5 million dollars to expand its Design in India Program. It also started the second round of the Design India Challenge – first started in 2015 - for the startup ecosystem working in domains like IoT, Mobiles, Biometric, Agriculture and Medicine. Qualcomm will work with and mentor startups under this challenge. And the collaboration with T-Hub will house the startups that are a part of this challenge.
Additionally, it will also work with these startups closely and provide mentorship opportunities to translate their ideas into reality. This will be in addition to the Qualcomm Innovation Labs that the startups will gain access to.
Speaking on the collaboration with Qualcomm, Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub said, “An entrepreneur continuously innovates to solve problems. And the larger idea of our association with Qualcomm is to bring out really cool innovations in technology. We are extremely pleased to work with Qualcomm to support the expansion of their initiatives in India. The Startups enlisted for this collaborative program offer creative solutions for helping India advance on a technological front in critical sectors like rural development, healthcare and digital payments.”
The challenge has two phases – January to July and June to December. Four startups from each phase will be picked as finalists and will win $75,000 from Qualcomm. Additionally, seven startups will also be picked as shortlists. These startups will be incubated from their early stages and will win $10,000 from the company to convert their ideas and designs into prototypes. The first phase of the design challenge, which is currently ongoing, has 16 startups on board.
“This is a great partnership to take up startups and see what their ideas are, how we can closely work with them while leveraging T-Hub’s infrastructure, mentorship and experience in incubating startups. We will also extend our innovation labs to some of these startups. The idea is to help them turn these ideas into products and services,” says Shashi Reddy, VP, Engineering Qualcomm India.
This article has been produced with inputs from T Hub as a part of a partner program.