Hong Kong/NYC startup Bindo took the top prize at the Startup Arena Singapore 2014 yesterday!
This is the second time a Hong Kong-based startup won at the ‘Startup Arena’ as eCommerce startup LotsOfButtons also won the same competition last year (Now known as “Craftyful”). This is great news for our tech startup scene, and we can’t wait to see who will make Hong Kong a three-time champion next year.
As a part of an epic two-day conference, ‘Arena’ had startups battle it out on the ‘Startup Asia’ stage for bragging rights and cash prize of US $10,000. Bindo’s pitch and demo of its cloud-based POS and indexing tool for local merchants impressed judges and secured the win above 9 other startups. Read our 5 Questions with Bindo’s founder here.
According to TechinAsia’s coverage of the event, a Korean startup that makes hybrid mechanical smartwatches was in second place, while a Pakistani startup that busts counterfeit pharmaceutical products took third. Click to see which startups competed here.
We had a chat with Ben Wong, biz dev over at Bindo and he shared whether competition was fierce and if ideas were innovative. “Most of the pitches were fairly polished, and other startups were interesting. Definitely some really innovative ideas out there,” he said. “I liked Astroscale a lot – it was a very admirable effort to clean up space debris.” Read about Singapore startup Astroscale’s plans to clean trash from earth’s orbit here.
As a large-scale tech event, Ben thought TechinAsia did a stand-up job as organisers and recommends the conference to fellow startups and techies. “I thought the Startup Asia event was really well run. People seemed very interested in tech and the startups there,” he said. “It was definitely an inspiring environment for visiting startups, I would recommend it to other startups looking to get exposure.”
StartupsHK co-founder Casey Lau was in the audience and had this to say: “I was really impressed – the competition was pretty strong and some of the pitches had a lot of edge to them. But in the end the judges – Khailee Ng from 500 Startups was one of them – picked the one that had the most potential, and like with LotsOfButtons last year, you can’t argue with the amount of traction Bindo has made. It may seem like a lofty idea but when it works it will snowball.
Very happy to have been there to see another Hong Kong startup take the big prize home. I tried to arrange a Hong Kong pavilion but couldn’t get enough Hong Kong startups to fill it – so I’m even more happy that Bindo came by themselves and then took the top prize. This is what I call a startup! Congrats and kudos to their “never say die” attitude!”
Startup Asia’s next stop will be in Tokyo on September 3-4, and will finish off the year in Jakarta.
Watch Ben pitch Bindo at ‘Startup Arena’ Here!
(Photo: TechinAsia)
Great team, great business model & impressive traction!
No question, Bindo deserves to win!
Congrats!