The Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) has been very effective in providing a startup ecosystem within the various learning Institutions in the region of Gujarat. To institutionalise more innovation and a startup support system, i-Hub was officially launched on 16 May 2019 by the Education Department, Government of Gujarat, as a Not-for-Profit Section 8 company. Basically, i-Hub focuses on acting as a one-stop solution for ‘Mind-to-Market’ support for early-stage innovators and startups across Gujarat to create job givers rather than job seekers; the initiative assists by providing support in pre-incubation, incubation, and acceleration stages.
The new i-Hub campus was launched by the Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendr Patel, on December 5, 2023, making it the largest facility of innovation hub in the state. Spanning 1.5 lakh square feet, the whole campus has maintained the features of co-working spaces, which are flexible, open to start-ups and can accommodate up to 500 start-ups at a time. It also has modern, technologically enhanced labs for prototyping to support its angle of being a one-stop shop for startups.
From the time of its establishment, it has created a list of 530 startups, and the overall income of all these startups accounted for INR 539 crore. Basically, the hub grants over INR 17 crore for prototype funding and has catalyzed INR 160 crore of private equity. Also, the startups which are incubated at i-Hub have offered approximately 1,400 skilled employment, and the total funding of supported startups has been INR 3,100 crore.
It follows the Hub & Spoke model, which is intended to cover more than 20 districts in Gujarat and, therefore, reach both the urban and rural communities. It has created awareness among about 4 lakh youth through training and capacity building and provided training to more than 5000 faculty members on IPR and Innovation.
For the next five-year plan, i-Hub hopes to offer seed money to 500 new startups and help mentor 1,500 student startups. The hub will also create sector-based incubation and acceleration programs to ensure that risk capital and venture funding for startups are available.
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