Hyderabad-based incubator We Hub leads innovation ecosystem

India's first State led Incubator for women entrepreneurs, 'We Hub', an initiative by the Government of Telangana, is expanding its presence rapidly across the State with an aim to expand its footprints in other districts of the State. To foster women entrepreneurship through incubation and provide them access to technical, financial, governmental, and policy required to support start up, scale up, sustain, and accelerate with global market access, We Hub tries to increase women entrepreneurship and create an ecosystem in the State which transform the lives of women.

Since its launch in 2018, Rs.85.21 crores of funding has been raised (credit linkages and equity funding), 2194 Start ups and SMEs incubated, 5235 entrepreneurs engaged, 2823 jobs created, and 21 Start up programmes have been launched.

Deepthi Ravula, CEO, We Hub, spoke to The Hans India over the various initiatives being taken up by We Hub. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

How did the idea of We Hub come into being?

After the formation of Telangana State in 2014, Global Entrepreneurship Summit was held in Hyderabad in 2017, on the theme of 'Women First, Prosperity for All.' In due course, Minister for Information Technology, K. T. Rama Rao announced the creation of We Hub as he emphasized that women must be part of society in development. Hence, the idea was crystallized as 'We Hub.'

What are the incubator facilities in We Hub? What kind of people in rural/urban areas associated with We Hub?

We entertain all the ideas that are put forth before us towards acceleration. Once they have an idea, we assist them with how to scale, and support them through curated mentorship, financial viability, and the required technical support. We Hub plays an important role in democratizing access. For rural entrepreneurs, though empowerment plays an important role, it is the technology incubation and social impact that our organization tries to support them.

What kind of ideas incubated led to startups?

Whenever there is an idea, we need to address the gaps that are associated with it. For any idea to culminate in a Start up, innovation plays an important role. Everyone needs to understand the concept of profit/loss. In We Hub, we assist them with how to create an enterprise, and add innovation to the start up so that the scale and sustainability might lead to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) in the foreseeable future.

What is the nature of startups taken off in We Hub?

We had startups in various categories, such as health, pharmaceuticals, architecture, social enterprises, food technology, agriculture technology, defence manufacturing, deep technology, and others.

In the post pandemic times, how do you see the women Startups and entrepreneurship in the industry?

We see a quantum leap in women who want to pursue entrepreneurship. They are changing their conventional style of ideas and approaching new ways of shaping their career.

How do you see the proposals recently unveiled by the Finance Minister to promote women entrepreneurship?

Though every budget focuses on women entrepreneurship, we always expect the budget to provide working capital for the Start ups, which helps them in incentivizing the business not only for linkage but also upskilling. As we all know, for Startups, technical upgradation is very important, and creating avenues for the same is very important.

What are the challenges that women Start ups face today? Are there any measures taken by We Hub to address them?

On the challenges front, the perception and the commitment of the founder is very important. I would identify there are three major challenges that every Start up generally faces, include (i) funding (ii) confidence in the market (iii) internal barriers. At We Hub, we try to mainstream the ideas we get and create avenues for knowledge. Digitalization in MSME's is very important as technological interventions become a huge enabler to scaling the start up.

What are the plans for We Hub in the post-pandemic world?

We need to scale up the programming and reach every district and mandal in the State of Telangana. We aim towards the single window clearance system for the Start ups in the future along with digitalization.