Being in China, a lot of the focus on start-ups is here but we shouldn’t forget the talent and energy coming from South East Asia. When people think of big markets, China flashes up as number 1, but little people know that Indonesia is the 4th most populous country with more than 237 million people.
In June, Singapore will host Echelon 2011, the biggest South-East Asian launchpad event which aims to uncover the 10 best start-ups from Asia. The event is a platform for companies to get their products in front of more than 1,000 investors, entrepreneurs, developers, regulators and tech industry executives. One winner gets a suite of awesome startup-friendly prizes including 3 months’ rent free space at Plug and Play Tech Center, Silicon Valley. It’s a two-day, double-track event on June 16-17 with over 1,000 delegates, a demo pit of 50 startups and various workshops.
To get a taste for how Launchpad has helped start-ups accelerate their success, here’s some info on 2010’s winners:
– Klout (Singapore), a Twitter analytics company that identifies influencer’s raised $US10 million led by Kleiner Perkins
– iTwin (Singapore), a unique storage solution was highligted on TechCrunch TV
– Foound (Singapore), a mobile app that makes it easier to organize hangouts was dubbed the ‘Foursquare of the future’ by CNet
– Flutterscape (Japan), an e-commerce platform to find products from Japan got funded by a top Japanese firm Digital Garage
– Scraplr (Indonesia), a productivity tool raised a seed round from East Ventures
– Insync (Phillipines), which makes syncing Google Docs easier, is closing a seed round of funding
– Socialwalk (Malaysia), an events management platform partnered with global ticketing giant Amiando
In April, satellite events will be held in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to unearth some cool start-ups. Applicants have to be 12 months old or less, based in Asia and working on web and mobile based technologies. The selected, will get to pitch at Echelon 2011 in June.
The line-up of speakers at Echelon 2011 includes:
– Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby
– Marco Kaiser, CTO and VP of Engineering, Seemic and Founder of Twhirl
– Jakob Lykkegaard, Co-Founder of Pagemodo
– Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner of Battle Ventures Founder Institute Singapore
– Carl Coryell-Martin, Singapore Practice Manager of Pivotal Labs
– Colin Charles, Chief Evangelist of Monty Program Ab
What you need to know
When: 16-17 June, 2011
Where: National University of Singapore
Price: Early Bird SGD$150 (ends April 30), Regular SGD$250
Agenda: click here
So if you’re interested in exploring what the start-up scene is like in South East Asia, check it out!
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