Hong Kong startups seeking their next round of funding should consider Singapore’s upcoming ‘Techventure 2014.’
The three-day conference, organised by the National Research Foundation, will include a tour to Blk 71, which the Economist has called “the world’s most tightly-packed entrepreneurial ecosystem,” and keynotes from YouTube co-founder Steve Chen and Evernote CEO Phil Libin.
Visiting startups will also have the chance to take part in pitch competitions and business match-making – such as the ‘Techventure Connect 180,’ an accelerated match-making session facilitated by the conference app (yes, Techventure has developed an app for startup-investor speed dating). In each matching round, Startups will have 180 seconds to impress investors from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures, just to name a few.
We had a chat with Zi Qian Chang, senior officer at the NRF’s innovation and enterprise unit, to find out why Hong Kong startups should make the trip down to the Merlion city.
“The objective of Techventure is to invite overseas investors to Singapore to do deals and to get foreign startups to come to Singapore to raise funds,” said Chang. “It’ll be interesting for Hong Kong startups to see the potential of Southeast Asia, and to interact with investors that aren’t active in Hong Kong.”
(Judging panel from last year’s Techventure business pitch)
Besides having the opportunity to pitch out-of-reach investors, Chang said a visit to Singapore might broaden the reach of Hong Kong startups that are focused solely entering the Mainland market.
“A lot of Hong Kong startups seem to be more northward facing. Even government subsidies and schemes encourage Guangzhou and Hong Kong to form teams to target the Mainland market together,” he said. “Perhaps Hong Kong should start considering Southeast Asia as a market and to start looking south.” With 155 million Internet users out of a total population of 630 million (according to this e27 article on ‘mobile penetration’), maybe Southeast Asia is a market Hong Kong startups should start tapping into.
If raising capital and learning from a nearby ecosystem is on your startup agenda, register for Techventure 2014. The NRF has extended their early bird registration deadline to August 31st, and is offering 10% off conference delegate tickets and exhibitor booths.
Click through to our CODES page for your discount.
Highlights from Techventure 2013:
