Plug and Play to set up its India centre in Hyderabad

Continuing the good run in attracting new companies, Telangana has now succeeded in getting another marquee player Plug and Play, world’s leading open innovation platform, to announce its first centre in India here in Hyderabad.

The announcement came after Plug and Plays’ leadership team met the visiting delegation from Telangana including Ramarao, IT and Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, and the Chief Relations Officer Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, at the French Senate in Paris. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Ambition India 2021 event hosted by French Government and Business France.

The executives from Plug And Play have announced that they will be officially launching the centre in Hyderabad in the first week of December and Plug And Play Founder and CEO Saeed Amidi will attend the launch.

Plug And Play’s network includes over 35,000 vetted startups globally in it’s Playbook and more than 530 world-leading corporations, and 1,500 active portfolio investments as on date who have raised $ 9 Billion in venture funding. It has 37 offices worldwide including Silicon Valley in the USA, Stuttgart in Germany, Paris in France, Osaka in Japan, Shanghai in China, Valencia in Spain, Amsterdam in Netherlands, and several other countries.

Plug and Play has accelerated 2,056 startups in the year 2020 (585 in USA, 438 in EMEA, and 1,042 in Asia). The company made 162 strategic investments in the year 2020. Plug And Play is the early investor in Google, PayPal, Dropbox, LendingClub, N26, Soundhound, Honey, Kustomer, and Guardant Health. It focuses on mobility, IoT, energy, agritech, health, sustainability, travel,  and fintech verticals.

In Hyderabad, Plug And Play will be focusing on building the ecosystem for mobility, IoT, energy, and infrastructure. Later, it would expand to fintech and life sciences, and healthcare.



Seattle-based Triangulum Labs, a Venture Foundry, will be partnering with Plug and Play Tech Center in Hyderabad to run the Incubation for the IoT and smart cities.

“This is a great boost to the innovation ecosystem in Telangana, which is prominently known for its startup enabler and largest incubator T-Hub. We have been able to attract several major investments in the mobility sector in the recent past including ZF, Fiat Chrysler/ Stellantis, and are 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 growth of this sector and we are glad that Plug And Play has chosen Hyderabad for it’s entry into India. Telangana is also moving up in value-chain in the healthcare, IoT, energy, and fintech,” said Ramarao.

Sascha Karimpour, the MD for the Plug and Play Germany and Startup Autobahn said “With the enthusiasm and the support that the Minister KT Rama Rao has shown, Plug And Play will build a successful collaboration platform in India. It will emulate the success of the Startup Autobahn in Germany, which in record time became an international epicentre for new tech collaboration between corporations and tech startups in the mobility sector.”

Omeed Mehrinfahr, the MD and Co-head of Europe, Middle East and Africa said “In Hyderabad we like to focus on mobility, IoT, energy and infrastructure and in the next step possibly expand to fintech and health. For each of these verticals we will invite industrial companies from India and members from our international network to accelerate innovation efforts.”

Plug and Play will become the gateway for Indian startups to work with leading corporations and be able to expand internationally through its network.  Plug and Play will invest in Indian startups and introduce its network of international venture capitalists.