TIL's TLabs seeks bright business ideas to be nurtured into viable products!

TLabs, a mentorship-driven accelerator program developed by Times Internet Limited (TIL), invites bright business ideas in the field of technology, mobile and Internet to develop into world-class products. TLabs is looking for young energetic teams with a marketable idea, who have the passion and skill to execute their ideas.

Backed by Times Internet Limited (TIL), TLabs provides funds, mentorship, and strategic and execution support to entrepreneurs in order to shape their plans into sustainable and scalable products. It offers an unbeatable repository of the industry's best mentors and world-class infrastructure.

Applications are now open for the program, which commences February 2012. The 13-week program seeks to mentor 10 start-ups. Besides an initial seed funding of up to Rs. 10 lakh, it will feature interactions with experienced and eminent leaders and domain experts in India and abroad, once every week over dinner. Entrepreneurs will also benefit with rehearsal demos for the project before they ultimately present their ideas and come face to face with angel investors and venture capitalists. Entrepreneurs are free to engage with these investor communities, and execute the plan independently.

"What sets the program apart is the access to TIL's huge infrastructure and domain expertise. This gives entrepreneurs at TLabs the edge over other start-ups right from the beginning," says Gautam Sinha, Director ' e-Commerce & Technology, Times Internet Limited.

Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited, said, "We want to make this a very high quality program, with very significant value addition to support entrepreneurs as well as the entire innovative ecosystem."

One of the companies that benefited from the TLabs program this year is DataWeave, a young start-up founded in 2011 by Karthik BR and Vikranth R from Bangalore.

"Being chosen by TLabs strengthens our belief in our product offering. The experience of the Indiatimes network's mentoring and the infrastructure support has already begun to show in the way we work and in the way we are perceived," said Karthik Bettadapura, www.dataweave.in.