Rejig HydStartups: 100 startups handpicked for the mega mentorship project

The three-week mentoring program looks forward to impacting startups from domains such as Lifesciences, fintech, manufacturing, agriculture, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, and emerging technology.

Rejig.HydStartups, an initiative chaired by Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) and T-Incubators & Enablers to support startups in reimagining and repositioning their business model post-pandemic has received more than 300 applications and 100 startups have been selected to be part of the mentoring program.

The initiative looks forward to impacting startups from domains such as Lifesciences, fintech, manufacturing, agriculture, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, and emerging technology.

This is a three-week mentoring program to help startups connect with investors or gain corporate market access, will see a three-pronged approach, understanding the concerns of the startup with completion of leg work assigned by the mentor, understanding the change of strategy, and a revised pitch.

The program will culminate in an event where the startups will pitch for equity funding, collateral-free debt funding, or corporate market access.

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

Reflecting upon the inclusive approach taken by T-Incubators & Enablers, Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary Telangana Government during the meetup, said, “I am happy to say that Hyderabad today will be standing out for its “City as a Whole Approach” through its most important initiative Rejig.HydStartups to support the startups in the 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.”

A panel discussion was held during the webinar 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, is 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 this crisis.

As mentioned by the panelists, some of the steps founders could take ranged from, identifying the alternate market for the existing product or service, rationalizing the product or service, smart cost optimization, 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 the Founders’ Resilience. The fact that the investments largely are done based on the strength of the business model and quality of the Human Capital. Deepanwita of IKP during the meetup added that it is a great opportunity not just for startups but also for the Incubators & Enablers to collectively contribute to the startup ecosystem in the times when mentor access is important for founders to get a sounding board.