Startup Demo Day in Thailand
The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) of Thailand hosted the Digital Startup, one of the biggest demo days in Thailand on June 6. It took place at Central Embassy in Bangkok. In the event, 40 excellent Thai startups strictly selected through competitions did a 5-minute pitching and had to answer the questions asked by judges for another 5 minutes.
For this event, the DEPA invited six judges from Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Korea, including Jun Hasegawa, CEO of Thailand-based OMISE, who is a well-known Japanese entrepreneur in Thailand, Pahrada Sapprasert, Associate Director of 500 Startups in Thailand, Koichi Saito, Founder of KK Fund in Singapore, Juthasree Kuvinichkul, CEO of Metta Group, Tiwa York, Head Coach of Kaidee.com, and David Sehyeon Baek, Director of Global Marketing & Cooperation at GCCEI, a public accelerator from Korea.
Some of the 40 tech startups participating in the Demo Day have been already doing a successful business in the Thai market, in particular, in the sectors of VR/AR, smart farm, IoT, etc. The DEPA held this event by working closely with RISE, one of the emerging private accelerators in Thailand.
The judges selected 10 winners out of 40 startups. All the teams showed remarkable potentials for growth. The top 4 winners will be sent to Silicon Valley, three winners to Korea and the other three winners to Singapore. They will get some mentoring, networking, and learning opportunities in those countries for about three weeks. Seekster, a platform developer matching caretakers with customers or companies, was selected as the first prize winner in the event. The other nine startup winners are already well positioned in the Thai market. ChomCHOB, Rinn, Refinn, Fictionlog, Mak VR, Drivemate, CashGrow, Fixzy Auto, and FindYourSpace Pro have demonstrated their potential for scalability and innovation.
David Sehyeon Baek, a judge from Korea, said, “The technology level of these Thai startups looks great without a doubt. In particular, the way they have resolved the existing social problems with an innovative technology is really impressive. What’s more impressive is that they do not focus on technology per se. I can see they really try hard to make a profitable business model. Even those who couldn’t win the competition this time were equally impressive in that they try so hard to address the social issues through technology.”
Meetham, Vice President of DEPA said, “Through this demo day, those winners will travel to USA, Korea and Singapore for three weeks. I’m sure they will learn a lot from the trip. We really look forward to working closely with those countries for startups.”
Earlier the DEPA signed MOU with Gyeonggi Provincial Government, Korea in late April.