A fund of funds for start-ups in Telangana, which has been under consideration for some time, seems close to fruition as a senior state government official on Tuesday hinted at a January rollout.
“We have decided to create a pool of funds of around ₹ 1,000 crore to start… (it will be launched sometime in January),” said IT Department Special Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar, pointing out the challenges startups face in raising funds.
Seeking to point out how the fund will be the latest in a series of measures by the state government to boost the startup ecosystem, a senior official said that access to finance will help the business get into the next orbit. “It is a work in progress… we have partnered with one of the agencies for this. I will finalize the details soon,” he added.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar, speaking at an event where IT Minister D. Sridhar Babu launched MeeSeva services on WhatsApp, said the Telangana startup ecosystem was looking forward to initiatives to improve their access to funds. For the government, the fund will build on various other enabling measures such as hand-holding and mentoring for startups.
It will focus on startups working in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, he said, adding that such emphasis would be in line with the state government’s aspirations to make Telangana a leading global AI hub. In addition to playing the role of facilitator, the government is partnering with leading firms such as Meta to provide AI training for recruitment across all its departments. The idea is to train such in-house tech-savvy staff through the ropes at leading firms to become “AI champions” who then work with startups to develop AI-enabled solutions, he said.
Published – 18 Nov 2025 20:30 IST
