South India makes its presence felt at TiECON's Pitch Fest

Out of 65 shortlisted applications, 48 are frm TN and Tire II & III cities

48 start-ups from south India have pitched to leading investors for funds at TiECON's Pitch Fest 2012.

'We got over 200 applications from over 200 entrepreneurs from sectors including Agriculture, E-commerce, Energy, Food, Healthcare, Infrastructure, IT, Retail and Transportation,' said Rajan Srikanth, Chairman and Managing Director, SmartKapital and Chairman Pitch Fest 2012.

He added, of the total applications 65 applications have been shortlisted and 48 are from South India. The appetite for money from start-ups range between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 crore.

Srikanth added of the 48 startups 75-80% are from Tamil Nadu and more companies from tier II and III towns are showing interest.

V T Bharadwaj, managing director of Sequoia Capital added that a number of experienced people from corporate sector has gone up. Today the entrepreneurs got around 6-10 years of experience. 

After an initial screening of the applications, the list was narrowed down to 48 companies, who were then invited to a mentoring clinic, euphemistically billed as "Practice Pitch".

Lakshmi Narayan, president, TiE Chennai said that TiE has expanded to other sectors, from its traditional IT sector.

Today of the 48 applications 21 are only from e-commerce and IT industry, while majority comes from non-IT.