In less than two months of announcing a new centre, Plug and Play Tech Centre starts operations in Hyderabad

In less than two months of announcing a new centre, Plug and Play Tech Centre, one of the world’s largest early-stage investor, accelerator, and corporate innovation platform globally, opened its India operations in Hyderabad on Monday.

“Congratulations and welcome to Hyderabad PlugAndPlay!! We make the announcement in Paris on 29th October and here you are inaugurating your facility in Hyderabad in less than two months!!. Look forward to some exciting unicorns coming out of our partnership,” Industries Minister KT Ram Rao tweeted on the occasion.

Rama Rao spoke to the company management during his visit to France in October. The company executives had then said that they will be officially launching their new centre in Hyderabad in December.

In Hyderabad, Plug And Play will be focusing on building the ecosystem for mobility, IoT, energy, and infrastructure. Later, it would expand to fin tech and life sciences and healthcare. Seattle-based Triangulum Labs, a Venture Foundry, will be partnering with Plug and Play Tech Centre in Hyderabad to run the incubation for the IoT and smart cities. It 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.

Speaking on the occasion, Ranjan said Telangana has achieved great progress in the last seven years and is a key contributor to the national per capita and GDP. Telangana is already a go-to destination for many companies across technology, BFSI, life sciences, automotive, food processing and textile segments. Hyderabad is home to more than 6,600 startups now. The number was just 200 seven years ago, he said, adding that the State was providing support to the startups with multiple incubators. The State was also open to be the first client for startups from Telangana for their products and services.

“The startup ecosystem in India has matured a great deal, making it ripe for Plug and Play’s venture arm. At present, India is third in the list of countries having the most unicorns coming in after the U.S. and China but ahead of the UK and Germany,” said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play in a release put out on Dec 9.

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 in 2020 has accelerated 585 startups in USA, 438 in EMEA, and 1,042 in Asia.