Anish Anthony contribution to T-Hubs Transformation into the World’s Largest Startup Incubator

T-Hub has established itself among the giants of innovation and entrepreneurship, known as one of the world's largest innovation campuses. T-Hub moved to its current location in Jun 2022, the same time that Anish Anthony joined T-Hub as its CDO (Chief Delivery Officer). The vision was to grow it not only as the world’s largest incubator and innovation campus but as an incubator of incubators. Anthony Anish, initially as the CDO and later the COO (Chief Operations Officer), had the responsibility of executing the vision. From expanding its infrastructure to refining its operations, his valuable contributions have made T-Hub a global hub of innovation and development.

Anish Anthony contribution to T-Hubs Transformation into the World’s Largest Startup Incubator

The Operator Behind the Transformation

Anish Anthony brought a unique combination of experience and foresight to T-Hub. With his diversity, which spans serving as a veteran in Kargil and a helicopter pilot in the Indian Air Force, he brought on board discipline, execution rigor, and a strategic mindset, which turned out to become the foundation upon which T-Hub transitioned. Added to that was his hands-on experience in entrepreneurship, which had been developed as a founding team member of large-scale multimillion-dollar businesses such as MyGate and Apposite Learning Pvt Ltd. All of these would now come in very handy as he navigated many complexities of scaling T-Hub.

A Strategic Approach to Scaling

Anish Anthony came on board at T-Hub when it was already fairly established but needed operationalization strategy and execution rigor to become a global innovation powerhouse. During his leadership, T-Hub grew to its current size of 6 lakh square feet and opened up multiple incubators within T-Hub. In 7 years from 2015 to 2022, T-Hub conducted 10 startup programs. In his 2-year tenure, Anthony Anish enabled 15 startup programs. He started programs with all the stakeholders of innovation like startups, academia, corporates, and governments.

Another transformation in the T-Hub's operational model was to move it away from the government grant-based structure to a self-sustaining revenue model. This way T-Hub moved away from dependence on the government for its operations and initiatives. A sizable portion of the income came from upscaled revenue verticals like corporate innovation and academic innovation. During his tenure, there were 30+ innovation programs concurrently in progress at any point in time. T-Hub had executing projects worth millions of dollars which it put back into the startup ecosystem.

Transforming into an Incubator of incubators

Understanding the need for sector-specific support, he operationalized the creation of multiple sector-specific sub-incubators in the T-Hub building. These included:

• MATH, a Sub-Incubator for AI/ML: In collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology, within 6 months he operationalized an incubator for supporting startups in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The incubator was spread across 50,000 SFt and had 550 seats. It could accommodate more than 100+ AI/ML dedicated startups.

• AIC T-Hub: In collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, he operationalized an incubator to address core global challenges in mobility, sustainability, healthcare, and semiconductors. The 10,000 SFt incubator has more than 150+ seats.

• A Defence and Aerospace Vertical: This new department was set up to provide targeted support to defense startups. Currently, 70+ IDEX-winning startups developing the world's best innovation in critical sectors are being actively supported.

These specialized incubators have turned out to be the force that has driven many varied types of startups within the ecosystem and built strong expertise.

Fostering an Ecosystem of Collaboration

Anish Anthony was promoted to the COO with a much larger role where he displayed his prowess in bringing varied stakeholders together. During his tenure, daily T-Hub was conducting more than 5 mentorships and connecting 10 startups to service providers. Through his incubator programs, mentorship tie-ups, and market-penetration endeavors, he ensured that startups received holistic support in running their businesses. He also developed pro-bono services, due to which more than 1,000 startups received benefits.

During his 2-year tenure, T-Hub's impact was recognized as T-Hub won the National Award for Best Incubator for both years.

Legacy of Impact

Anish Anthony has made an impactive mark on T-Hub and beyond in the startup ecosystem in India. He converted T-Hub into a vibrant, self-sustaining, globally recognized incubator—thus raising its stature, while motivating entrepreneurs to dream big.

With his vision, execution, and commitment to scale up, Anish Anthony played a great part in transforming T-Hub from an incubator into one of the world's leading flag bearers for innovation and entrepreneurship.