April 27, 2017 – dtac accelerate batch 5 announced on Pitch Day the top 12 startups to enter the
final stage of the program. The 12 finalists include Cookly,
Creden, Drivemate, Globish, Indie Dish, Ricult, ScoutOut, Seekster,
Senseino, Shiftspace, Tixget, and Tourkrub. Each of the finalists has
the
quality, product, and passionate team members who want to bring
innovation and technology to disrupt the business world, especially in
Agriculture Tech, Education Tech, HR Tech, Food Tech, Travel Tech, and
Fin Tech. All the finalists will receive seed funding,
ranging from 500,000 Baht to 1.5 million Baht per team, and
commercialization support from dtac, worth over 100 million Baht. The
intensive boot camp runs from May to August, 2017. The final pitch and
the winner announcement will be held on Demo Day in August.
Mr. Andrew Kvalseth,
Chief Digital Officer, Total Access Communication PLC or dtac, said,
“dtac
is determined to groom startups who are becoming part of the dtac
accelerate family. We provide knowledge, resources, and
commercialization support to help them grow in local and international
markets. They also get access to investment sources through a network
of world-class VCs. The boot camp, to be held at Hangar Coworking
Space, includes training from world-class startup gurus and one-on-one
mentoring by renowned startup entrepreneurs and startup padawans. We are
as committed and dedicated to the dtac accelerate
program as ever.”
Mr. Sompoat Chansomboon,
Director of Business Innovation and dtac accelerate, said, “I would
like to congratulate
and welcome the 12 startup finalists to our dtac accelerate family.
They are selected out of over 500 applicants, an extremely low 2.5%
acceptance rate equivalent to that of the world’s top universities. The
standard of Thai startups has constantly risen over
the past year. We are impressed by the quality of startup pitches, in
terms of products that meet market demands, solid business models,
growth potential, and market expansion opportunities. More importantly,
all the finalists have a team that possess strong
business expertise and have developed technology-oriented idea based on
their problems or pain points. For examples, Tourkrub has generated
over 100 million Baht revenue on its online tour selling platform within
the first few months. Seekster, with strong
background in hotel management, has created a mobile application and
website that allows corporate and individual customers to seek services
like home cleaning and AC cleaning at one fingertip. Globish and
Senseino are educational tech startups who offer English,
Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language courses. We can obviously see
the quality and talent of this year’s crop.
The
12 finalists will attend the intensive world-class boot camp and
receive coaching from world class mentors, such as Ash Maurya, the
world’s expert in Lean Startup Canvas Model and Nir Eyal,
the creator of Hooked Model that is behind the success of the world’s
top startups, including Facebook and Instagram. They will also receive
training on Google Sprint from Google Developers experts and on various
tools by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM,
and AWS. dtac and Telenor Group will provide commercialization support
worth over 100 million Baht. dtac accelerate has also teamed up with Mr.
Ho Ren Hua, CEO of Thai Wah Group, and Mr. Sara Lamsam, CEO of Muang
Thai Life Insurance, Thailand’s number one
and a leading insurance company in the region, to provide funding and
co-marketing support. All 12 finalists are determined to disrupt the
mobile Internet ecosystem through the use of innovation and technology,
such as a new breed of applications that stimulate
excitement and enhance customer lifestyles as well as improve the
standard of living for the Thai people.”
