Following homegrown startup Divide’s recent Google acquisition, we’re convinced that enterprise tech is a space more startups should be paying attention to.
According to startup mentor Trey Zagante, the enterprise tech market is in investment terms, double the size of the more favored consumer tech market and has made up for 80% last year’s largest tech IPOs. Besides mentoring startups in the Melbourne-based Founder Institute and early stage accelerator AngelCube, Trey is also the founder of a newly launched accelerator program called Venturetec.
As the first enterprise tech-focused program for Asia-Pacific, Venturetec offers startups up to HKD $1 million in seed investment, access to Fortune 500 customers, office space in both Australia and Hong Kong and the opportunity to meet US and APAC investors. Diverging from the traditional ‘three-month and demo day’ accelerator model, Venturetec runs a six-month structured program, drawing from lean startup teachings, which is followed by an additional half year of ongoing support. Visit their website for more program details.
“Enterprise tech startups need a longer runway to progress through the different stages of growth. The ideation phase is seeded with ideas from our corporate partners and we teach them how to do customer discovery with key decision makers.” said Trey. “The product development and sales cycle is a lot longer for enterprise tech startups and the MVP is going to be very different.”
Besides tailoring the program to fit the needs of enterprise startups, Venturetec will be run virtually which will give startups greater access to mentors across regions.
“We found that our mentor network is spread across Australia, Singapore, China and the UK, so there’s a benefit to running a virtual program,” said Trey. “We’ll be able to support startups from any country within the APAC region without having to worry about relocation and visa requirements, which might limit the talent pool of startups we’re looking at.”
Thanks to the flexibility a virtual program brings (which could eliminate the distraction a co-work space brings), Venturetec will also be able to accept 12-16 startups into its first cohort and application deadline is July 31st.
Click here to apply for Venturetec’s first cohort!
Trey Zagante on Startbase.HK: Trey Zagante
Venturetec Accelerator on Startbase.HK: Venturetec Accelerator
