New DTAC Accelerate start-up batch shooting for the stars

FreshKet, a workflow-integrated marketplace for fresh food suppliers and restaurants, was flooded with registrations from hundreds of companies within the first 48 hours of its website's launch. 

Fastwork, described as the No 1 freelance marketplace in Thailand, saw its revenue grew 11 fold in four months after entering DTAC Accelerate.

The two companies were part of DTAC Accelerate's Demo Day Batch 4, which showcased 14 startups - nine from Thailand, three from Malaysia, and two from Myanmar.

The judges included investors and startup gurus from the government and private sectors.

The startup finalists pitched their business models for the chance to secure series A funding and seed funding. 

FreshKet and Fastwork have received invitations to appear at BlackBox Connect, labelled the best incubator programme in Silicon Valley, California, and the Web Summit 2016, an exhibition of world-class startups in Lisbon, Portugal.

The Batch 4 startups have enjoyed continuous growth.

They include Finnomena, whose customers invested over Bt53 million on its national training and educational resource platform in just three months. 

WearandShare has more than 100 dresses and 500 designs worth over Bt2 million that can be rented.

Visionear is described as one of the world's first smart eyeglasses for the visually impaired, with dozens of people already utilising it Thailand. 

EventPass works with event organisers to promote events and register and check-in guests via its app. It serves 35 large trade fairs and exhibitions, generating over Bt3 million in revenue. 

Health at Home has trained over 200 elderly care professionals.

PlanforFIT has generated over Bt7 million in revenue, while CloudCommerce generates Bt3 million in revenue per month.

DTAC Accelerate has provided commercial support to five startups - FABbrigade, Finnomena, Fastwork, PlanforFit, and EvenPass. The companies have signed partnership agreements with the telecom giant. 

Andrew Kvalseth, DTAC's chief of strategy |and innovation, said Thailand's current startup ecosystem was clearly different from last year. 

He said the startup community was rapidly growing, as evidenced by the number of DTAC Accelerate applications growing three fold in 2016 compared to 2015.

He said the interest in startups was growing in major cities across the country. Startups demonstrated a commitment and a passion to work hard to achieve their goals while they possessed an in-depth knowledge of their businesses and quality products. 

He said they were dedicated to solving business and social issues through technology, which was in line with the government's Thailand 4.0 strategy to use technology and innovation to drive the country's development. 

"This year, we have launched incubator programmes in other markets, including Digi Malaysia and Telenor Myanmar," he said. "We have supported Thai startups to expand their businesses to Malaysia and Myanmar in order to develop a marketing channel to reach 60 million customers in three countries and expand to over 200 million customers of Telenor Group [which is] operating in 13 countries around the world." 

Sompoat Chansomboon, head of business innovation for DTAC Accelerate, said the combined value of the 21 Batch 4 startups was Bt1.5 billion. 

"Our next goal is to create unicorn startups, which is a startup company valued at over $1 billion," Sompoat said. "It is possible to create unicorn startups as the DTAC Accelerate programme is developed based on the model used in Silicon Valley. 

"We know it is an extremely challenging goal, but it is already a mission of the DTAC Accelerate family. We are fully committed to helping Thai startups to grow in the global market. As long as startups do not stop, we will continue to support them so we can grow together."

DTAC Accelerate startups recently won five awards in three pitching competitions. 

They are FreshKet, GizTix, Tech Farm and Skootar.