T-Hub and Anthill launch ‘MERGE’ – a corporate innovation platform
T-Hub, India’s fastest growing startup engine in collaboration with Anthill, a speed scaling platform for early stage startups, today announced the launch of ‘MERGE’, a pioneering, corporate innovation platform. MERGE is a unique endeavor to accelerate innovation and create adaptable enterprises by forging the combined advantages of the agility embodied in startups and scalability offered by corporates.
With technology disruption radically altering almost every sphere of business, innovation has emerged as the key differentiator for enterprise success. The startup revolution over the past decade has only pushed the speed and reach of innovation further. This exciting new dynamic is driving corporates to develop newer business models in partnership with start-ups to fully capitalize on the benefits brought on by delivering game-changing products and solutions.
The launch of MERGE brought together marquee national and international startups, global investors and leading corporates like PwC, Samsung, Capgemini, YES BANK, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. Participants were taken through an elaborate, expert driven programme where they were given insights into the five phases of the corporate innovation lifecycle – Assess (identify areas of disruption), Source (select startups aligned to innovation focus areas through brand positioning, road shows and hackathons), Design (evaluate product and business models of selected startups and provide mentorship for designing market-ready prototype), Build (jointly finalize business model by choosing sourcing channels, developing strategies for design and sales distribution) and Scale (increase market share, improve customer experience andidentify global supply and distribution channels).
Commenting on the launch of MERGE, Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub said, “In the Indian context, it’s mighty hard for startups to create new streams of revenue without building new distribution channels, no matter how innovative their technology is. On the other end of the spectrum, large corporates struggle to innovate with agility, in spite of their scale. As a premier startup engine, and through the partnership with Anthill, we are primed to create structured and curated new avenues of growth for the corporates and to foster scalability of entrepreneurial ventures, through this collaborative platform- MERGE”.
Prasad Vanga, founder and CEO, Anthill, said, “Our motto has always been to scale with speed. Studies show that from 2012-2016, corporates have invested $625B in 6000 startups. This reinstates the fact that corporate innovation is growing at a fast rate. The agility of startups when put together with the scalability factor of corporates, will result in success for both and at the same time, bring about innovative solutions that will change the game of the startup ecosystem. T-Hub and Anthill’s joint corporate innovation program MERGE aims to foster corporate innovation by partnering and growing together.”