In 2012, startup accelerators rise in Asia, but venture funding yet to catch up

December 27, 2012 by  

JFDI.Asia held its first bootcamp in Asia. The question remains whether it and Asia's other startup accelerators can keep the momentum going.

Asia has become a much friendlier place to do a startup. That’s because throughout the region, more startup accelerators have been launched to provide aspiring entrepreneurs some handholding as they search for the next big idea.

In 2012 alone, at least 4 startup accelerators have begun their inaugural bootcamps. Singapore’s JFDI.Asia held a successful one from January to May, while South Korea’s SparkLabs unveiled their first batch of startups in August. Philippines’ Launchgarage and Hong Kong’s AcceleratorHK too have started their programs.

A startup accelerator, essentially, is a type of seed startup funding (see: stages of a startup) vehicle that offers a structured mentorship program and support services over a fixed duration of time — often from 3 months to a year. Investees typically have to go through a rigorous selection process. Read more

New startup accelerator SparkLabs launches and brings Silicon Valley to South Korea

August 2, 2012 by  

A new startup accelerator in Korea called SparkLabs has launched with the aim of connecting Korea’s entrepreneurs to mentors from Silicon Valley and around the world. It hopes to help these startups expand into the US, China, Japan and beyond.

“Korea has been a powerhouse of innovation in high technology. SparkLabs opens the door to new entrepreneurs to amplify and ignite their new ideas into new and growing businesses,” said Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, who is an advisor to SparkLabs.

The accelerator is started by serial entrepreneurs Hanjoo Lee (co-founder of Hostway), James Kim (former executive at Nexon), and Bernard Moon (co-founder of Vidquik). They have started technology companies in the United States and Korea, experienced going public, raised significant amounts of venture capital and bootstrapped their startups. Read more