Shepherding start-ups

Founded in 2012 by a group of entrepreneurs, M8VC plans to be an incubator, accelerator and provide technology investment to assist the Thai start-up community with the experience or networks of each founder of M8VC who have started a venture.

One of the 8 M8VC founders is Thailand’s Internet icon and pioneer Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, the founder of Thailand’s largest and most successful e-commerce website ‘Tarad.com’ and vice president of Thai E-Commerce Association.

“Venture capital and Angel investing are powerful forces for change. It allows individuals to pursue their dreams that improve society and make the world a better place. M8VC would like to contribute to the Thai start-up community as the ‘agent of change’, to help entrepreneurs accelerate their journey to success with their expertise, capital, and network,” said another M8VC’s co-founder and partner, Ponthep Sethiwan.

As we move closer to 2015 when the economies of Asean will be closely integrated and the region will play a greater role in the world economy, Thailand is positioning itself as a leader in innovation and development of the technology industry. One of the competitive edges that Thailand lacks is a structured and organised support for start-ups. M8VC has taken the initiative to bridge that gap for Thai entrepreneurs so they can have access to knowledge, networks, and funding to compete on a regional scale. 

“It is not easy for passionate entrepreneurs to thrive in the Southeast Asian market. The way things are done in the region is vastly different from the West. Many talented young entrepreneurs do not have the needed experience or networks to take their venture to success. This is exactly where we come in to help,” said Ponthep.

Each founder of M8VC has started a venture before. Every founder has experience and seen success and failures first hand. 

“We are confident in our ability to take our incubatees and portfolio companies to success,” said Ponthep.

M8VC kicks off its first activity in Thailand that is the pitching event between five Thai tech entrepreneurs and 20 investors from Southeast Asia on December 11-12.

The five Thai tech entrepreneurs are Attack Price, Privepass, Sotify.me (Page365), PHOTOBOOK Maker, and Freehab. 

The objective of this event is to launch M8VC and just serve as a quick teaser on what they can do. The group is looking be a bridge between start-ups and investors, and showing the world that there is an alternative way to doing things.

He added that currently the support and incentives from the Thai government is not enough, therefore more efforts must be put into supporting the Thai start-up community. 

“We are extremely passionate about bringing change to Thailand and we wish to do it through our expertise in driving change in the new seedlings of Thai talents that are willing to do whatever it takes to take their products and ideas to success,” said Ponthep.

The first day will be a demo day to showcase some of the talents Thailand has to offer to both local and international investors. Day Two will be reserved for investors who want to invest in the companies featured on Day One. 

He added that M8VC stands in short for various features: it is a gathering of eight men who have all been entrepreneurs and gone through the highs and lows of an entrepreneur; M8 refers to Lagoon Nebula – a giant interstellar cloud in which stars are formed, and 8 is the number for infinity.

 

The 5 Thai tech teams

 

Attack Price

Attack Price is an online product price comparison service that allows shoppers to instantly search and compare millions of products and services sold through online stores, small businesses, and individuals. It can instantly point shoppers to the site that offers the cheapest price and thus eliminate the time wasted on researching competitors’ sites. 

 

Privepass

Privepass offers two main services called Getaways and PriveClub, Getaways combines hotel rooms and non-room products, provides a sort of teaser for the customers to experience what hotels have to offer. PrivéClub is a new marketing tool, which aims at promoting hotels’ non-room products and other lifestyle venues such as restaurants and spas. 

 

Sotify.me (Page365) 

Page365 notification management system empowers business owners to systematically respond to purchase orders, enquiries and complaints. The system can be trained to answer common questions within seconds, significantly improving conversion and customer satisfaction. 

 

PHOTOBOOK Maker 

PHOTOBOOK MAKER is building a platform, which allows artists, photographers and authors to publish and sell their awesome artworks. The platform will also attract art lovers to explore arts, follow their favorite artists and buy artworks. 

 

Freehab 

Online market opens the way for people to share and express comments, but not their feelings. World happiness data is fragmented and inconsistent, thus it very difficult and costly to track the development of happiness over time. People share 532 million status updates and 250 million photos every day. Freehaps allows people to graphically share their feelings.