"We target Southeast Asian market with this app. We do not consider China and USA only, but also we aim to enter Thai market first in the Southeast Asian market. What should I do?" Jesse Eunho Lee, CEO of Discoverho, a Korean startup accelerated by Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation(GCCEI).
Discoveryho has made an app called 'FashionShow' thru which you can avoid making mistakes in buying clothes or accessories by checking out many post-purchase comments. If many comments are not available in the app, you can use 'ShowTalk' function to ask other users about the products, exchanging information. At the moment, this app is available in English, Chinese, and Korean, but Thai version will be released as well, Jesse said. So David Sehyeon Baek, Director of GCCEI, invited him to the meeting with Dr. Supachai, CEO of RISE, a Thai accelerator on May 13.
GCCEI is working on the collaboration with 'C-ASEAN,' a two-week mentoring program run by 'Thai Bev,' one of the top 10 big companies. And thanks to the help of the Thai Embassy in Korea, RISE and GCCEI became partners also.
RISE, a new accelerator in Thailand, is emerging very quickly in partnership with Krungsri Bank, Ministry of Digital Economy, Siam Cement Group, etc. Especially, CEO of RISE, Dr. Supachai is very unique. Even though he holds a medical doctor's license, he has decided to accelerate startups without practicing medicine.
GCCEI introduced Jesse Eunho Lee, CEO of Discoveryho to Dr. Supachai and had a three-hour meeting last Saturday. RISE decided to accelerate Discoveryho in Bangkok in late June, connecting Jesse to all those related business partners. Especially, Dr. Supachai emphasized the importance of localization of the business. "Thai market is very energetic and active. Hanryu or Korean Wave is also helpful, and so FashionShow app might work well. Nonetheless, localization of the business can be vital. Currently FashionShow deals in Korean clothes from Korean online shops, but I would like to suggest working with Thai designers and on-line shops also." Dr. Supachai promised to present Discoveryho to business partners in June.
Daniel Junghyun Kim, a global business team leader from VenturePort, a Korean private accelerator, was also invited by GCCEI so that it could work with RISE in Thailand. RISE and VenturePort decided to hold a promotion event on May 26 to encourage excellent Thai startups to come get acceleration in Korea, through a program called 'K-Grand Challenge Program 2017' mainly run by NIPA, Korea.
David Sehyeon Baek, Director of Global Cooperation at GCCEI said, "Nowadays, Korean startups do not stay only in Korea; actually they aim to enter foreign markets from the beginning. Their numbers are on the increase. What is most important is to connect them to the right local business partners in collaboration with Thai accelerators like RISE, which will increase the success rate in the global market. Recently, we have connected Tata Group to one of our Korean startups for collaboration also. Our mission is to make all those connections between Korean startups and foreign accelerators/business partners in foreign markets."