TLabs, the startup accelerator launched by Times Internet Group, media group Bennett, Coleman & Co’s Internet business arm, is ready to roll out the first batch of incubatees in its 13-week programme. Though the incubator had originally targeted ten startups teams, it will kick off the programme with five teams. Batch I gets into session from February 6. The accelerator, which focuses on Internet and mobile startups, will invest Rs 10 lakh in each startup in exchange for a 10 per cent stake.
The accelerator requires all teams to be physically present at its premises, which are located in Noida. Ahead of the launch of Batch I, the TLabs team is also putting together a networking event, Bootcamp, for startups, says Abhishek Gupta (in photo), who currently leads the operations of the Accelerator. Gupta, who started his career at Citicorp Information Technology Industries (which later became iFlex Solutions), was vice president-technology at Lime Labs India prior to joining TLabs. Apart from Gupta, the leadership team at the accelerator includes Rishi Khiani, Gautam Sinha and Lalit Bansal.
Here’s a quick look at the five startups in Batch I:
- Bluegape – Order customized posters online and have them delivered to your doorstep
- Dataweave – Discover, monitor and visualize public data on the Internet in a uniform format
- Oravel – Book bed-and-breakfast accommodation online with individuals rather than hotels
- UberLabs – State-of-the-art computer vision-based object recognition platform for digital images
- WiC – User and social networks driven price discovery application
While it gets ready to roll out the first batch, TLabs is preparing for its next batch, which starts in August. “We’re open to ideas even at the concept stage. Though we prefer at least two founders per team, exceptions can be made for promising entrepreneurs” says Gupta. The accelerator has lined up mentors such as venture capitalist Alok Mittal from Canaan Partners, Shashikant Chaudhary who heads telecom at GlobalLogic, Vriti founder Swapnil Srivastav, and venture capitalist Mukul Singhal from SAIF Partners.
Image: StartupCentral
Just visit their site, might be they will end up with 3.
Best of luck for all the 5 selected startups….
A small update – We may accelerate more than 5 start-ups as we have a few in the pipeline that came in late and are still in the process.