Accelerating Asia Bolsters Regional Seed-Stage Startup Ecosystem – First 10 Companies Graduate at Inaugural Demo Day

Singapore, 3 October 2019 – Accelerating Asia, Singapore’s leading independent startup accelerator today graduated its first cohort of startups at its inaugural Demo Day.
The event marks the culmination of an intensive four-month programme where founders from 10 startups worked closely with Accelerating Asia’s regional network of best-in-class mentors, investors, customers and partners to scale their businesses and solve deeply localised pain points unique to Asia through technological innovations. At its first Demo Day, founders pitched their businesses to a private audience of the top investors in the region, multinationals, government partners and other ecosystem players.
In a region that has produced 11 unicorns over the last five years, growing mobile penetration rates and rapid urbanisation offers vast untapped opportunities for the development of innovative solutions to catalyse positive change for businesses and consumers alike.
Accelerating Asia’s diverse cohort of startups originate from across the region, spanning high-growth markets including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. As a vertically agnostic accelerator, these startups cover a range of industries such as human resources, shipping and logistics, enterprise SaaS solutions, fintech, big data, medtech and adtech.
The growth of these startups over the course of 4 months has been significant, with S$1million raised by the cohort collectively. The additional capital investment was on top of the S$1million seed funding startups raised prior to joining Accelerating Asia’s program. Month over month revenue (MOMR) also grew significantly, with the aggregate monthly revenue increasing from S$100,000 to S$250,000 during the accelerator.
“At Accelerating Asia, we work with each startup on an individual basis to develop their value propositions and their core business models so they can emerge from our program as stronger companies,” said Craig Dixon, Co-Founder, Entrepreneur in Residence and Program Director, Accelerating Asia. “Additionally, over 10 external investments have been made in our startups over the course of the program, which is a great credit to our founders and a testament to the solutions they are developing to effect tangible change for regional communities. Together with our partners, we believe in the potential of our startups and are extremely excited to see what they are now capable of achieving.”
All startups can boast a growing customer base in respective markets. During the program, Loop from Bangladesh, a technology-enabled marketplace for full truckload freight, moved 3200 tonnes of goods and secured a total of US$4.5m letter of intent. Automotive service and resource platform, Zantrik increased its monthly revenue by 100 percent and grew customers by more than 50 percent taking the total number of customers to over 20,000.
The startups also added leading multinational companies to their client base. BeamAndGo, a payment and digital marketplace that empowers migrant workers, is already working with three of the Philippines’ largest retailers; while Klaud9, an online platform that matches photographers and brands, has signed on industry heavyweights such as DHL, Citibank, and NTUC, to name a few.
Amra Naidoo, Co-Founder, Partnerships & Operations Director, Accelerating Asia said, “It is a momentous day for the Accelerating Asia team and our partners. We have seen these talented founders develop their ideas from day one and not just scale their businesses but also take significant strides in their ambitions to catalyse change for the region. We are truly excited to see how they will continue to grow and positively impact the ecosystem.”
Accelerating Asia is partnered with Enterprise Singapore through the Startup SG Accelerator program. Lim Seow Hui, Director of Start-Up Development at Enterprise Singapore, shared, “With a growing digital economy, rising middle class, booming startup scene in Southeast Asia, we look forward to the development of new, innovative solutions that can address market needs. Enterprise Singapore will continue to work with partners like Accelerating Asia to grow innovative startups to capture emerging industries and regional opportunities.”
Lining up its plans for the future, Accelerating Asia will continue to guide the development of startups in the region through the accelerator, which provides access to its extensive network of ecosystem partners, and providing go-to-market support.
“Over the program, we’ve received positive feedback from our partners including government, VCs and startups across the region and an appetite for more programs in different locations, so we are currently exploring how we can bring our accelerator to new markets and startups,” Amra Naidoo said.
Applications for Accelerating Asia’s second cohort are now open with plans to grow the cohort size from 10 to 15 startups. The Accelerating Asia team is running roadshow events in Jakarta, Manila, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore to recruit for the next cohort. Interested applicants may visit acceleratingasia.com for more information on the application process, as well as the dates and venues for roadshow events.
About Accelerating Asia
Accelerating Asia is an award-winning regional network of startup programs and an early-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Singapore. At Accelerating Asia, we are passionate about driving success for entrepreneurs and supporting them with the tools, resources, and networks to accelerate their growth. Our flagship accelerator program and seed fund works with high-impact and high-potential startups from all sectors across the region to take them to the next level. Startups receive competitive funding at founder-friendly terms, as well as access to best-in-class mentors, investors, customers, and our network of partners. Through strategic partnerships with multinationals, governments, development organisations and education institutions, we support better engagement with startups and more effective implementation of new technologies. At the core of the work we do is the guiding belief that entrepreneurs are humanity’s greatest catalysts for positive change.
For Media Enquiries:
PRecious Communications for Accelerating Asia
Email: acceleratingasia@preciouscomms.com
Tel: +65 6303 0567
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Accelerating Asia’s first cohort include the following startups who have achieved growth during the program:
BeamAndGo (Philippines) is a payment and digital marketplace that empowers migrant workers by giving them control over how their remittances are spent by their families back home. During the program, BeamAndGo added 3 of the Philippine’s largest retailers, SM, Abenson and Redi Ribbon to the client list and are also experiencing a year on year growth of 500% in transaction volume.
Datanest (Indonesia): Datanest is a data science as a service startup, helping companies to drive their performance and profitability through AI and Machine Learning algorithm. Datanest doubled its MMR since joining the cohort & recently signed its first Singapore client.
DeafTawk (Pakistan): DeafTawk is a platform connecting sign language interpreters to deaf people, helping them with daily tasks such as going to the doctor, school and transport. In the past 18 months Deaftawk has processed over 30,000 hours of translation services and is growing at over 30 percent month on month. DeafTawk has won also recognised as the best startup across the Asia Pacific by the UNDP.
Klaud9 (Singapore): Klaud9 is an online platform that matches photographers and brands to create amazing photos for social media and marketing campaigns. Since entering Accelerating Asia’s program, Klaud9 onboarded 30 new clients including Nivea, LEGO, Citibank and NTUC.
Loop (Bangladesh): Loop is a technology-enabled marketplace for full truckload freight. In the past three months, Loop added 900 trucks to its system; moved 3200 tonnes of goods; and it onboarding 3 new AAA-rated shippers. The startup was able to secure a total of US$4.5m letter of intent as part of the first cohort of Accelerating Asia. The startup secured and increase in Letter of Indemnity from $1.2m to $3.3m since joining the accelerator.
Medlink (Vietnam): Medlink is revolutionising the pharmaceutical product distribution model in Vietnam with a platform that connects consumers, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies. Partnered with over 4,500 pharmacies, Medlink has completed 30,000 transactions with a GMV of over USD$2M in the past year.
Panalyt (Singapore): Panalyt puts actionable people analytics in the hands of managers across your organisation through its user-friendly dashboards and AI-driven insights. In the last three months, Panalyt has raised an additional US$500,000 for its regional expansion and signed Circles.Life, Mercari and SmartNews as customers.
TalentTribe (Singapore): TalentTribe is a millennial recruitment platform that helps employers hire early-career talent with a great fit. During the program TT has closed S$500,000 of their current S$750,000 round in funding. TalentTribe also grew its monthly active jobs on the platform by 52 percent and now has 250 companies/employers on the platform during the program.
Web2Ship (Malaysia): Web2Ship is booking.com for logistics in Southeast Asia. The platform helps online sellers to search, compare and book different courier and postal services by identifying the best shipping services. Over 5,000 merchants rely on Web2Ship for the cross-border shipping needs.
Zantrik (Bangladesh): Zantrik is an automotive service and resource platform to ensure seamless and standard maintenance experience for vehicle owners, by connecting service providers and applying quality assurance standards. Since joining the accelerator, Zantrik Increased its monthly recurring revenue by 100%. Furthermore, it closed a funding round of USD$172,000; signed 7000 new customers, increasing the total number of customers to 20,000; and experienced a 25 percent growth in the last 3 months.