Plug and Play Tech Centre, the world’s largest leading innovation platform, will be setting up its first India center in Hyderabad. The company made the announcement following a meeting with Telangana’s Industries Minister KT Rama Rao in Paris.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Ambition India event, which was hosted by the French Government and Business France. Currently, Plug And Play’s network incorporates more than 35,000 vetted start-ups from around the world in its Portfolio, over 530 world-leading companies, and 1,500 active portfolio investments.
The center will be officially inaugurated in the first week of December in the presence of Mr. Rao and the company’s founder and CEO, Saeed Amidi, according to an announcement from the Minister’s office.
Plug and Play is a platform that connects startups, businesses, venture capital firms, universities, as well as government agencies. It has 37 offices around the globe, such as Silicon Valley in the United States, Shanghai in China, Paris in France, Stuttgart in Germany, Osaka in Japan, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Valencia in Spain, among others.
It is also an accelerator and an early-stage investor in startups, in addition to fostering innovation through its network. The platform, in 2020 alone, has accelerated 2,056 startups which include 585 in the USA, 438 in EMEA, and the rest 1,042 in Asia. Plug and Play have raised $9 billion in venture funding and backed 162 strategic investments in 2020. Plug And Play was an early investor in Google, Dropbox, Honey, LendingClub, PayPal, N26, Soundhound, Kustomer, and Guardant Health.
Plug And Play will focus on fostering an ecosystem for Mobility, IoT, Energy, and Infrastructure in Hyderabad. The next phase would be to strengthen into Fintech and Life Sciences and Healthcare. Triangulum Labs, a Venture Foundry based in Seattle, will be collaborating with Plug and Play Tech Center in Hyderabad to administer the IoT and Smart Cities Incubation.
Plug and Play will function as a bridge for Indian startups to connect with top corporate giants and expand abroad, thanks to its massive network. Tech Center platform will invest in Indian startups and introduce its global venture capitalist network.
Mr. Rao stated that this is a substantial boost for Telangana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is well-known for T-Hub, India’s largest startup incubator, situated in Hyderabad. “We have been able to attract several major investments in the mobility sector in the recent past including ZF, Fiat Chrysler/ Stellantis, and in the process of creating a world-class mobility ecosystem in partnership with several OEMs and tier-I suppliers. Innovation is the key driver for the growth of this sector and we are glad that Plug And Play have chosen Hyderabad for its entry into India.”
“Plug and Play will build the most successful collaboration platform in India and emulate the success of the Startup Autobahn in Germany, which in record time, became an international epicenter for new tech collaboration between established corporations and tech startups in the mobility sector,” said Sascha Karimpour, MD for Germany and Startup Autobahn.