It’s the calm before the storm, and some time to check my social networks, LinkedIn profile and namecards, but YES, we are ready at Innovation is Everywhere for a compact week in Singapore, South-East Asia’s undisputed (yet) startup hub.
Echelon Singapore 2014, the biggest events for startups in South-East Asia
First with Echelon Singapore, the region’s biggest event on startups and digital technologies, with 2000 delegates from 50 countries expected this year and press coverage ranging from the New York Times to Techcrunch (and us, should we modestly add).
The very cool feature of this event is the underlying satellites. Three months before the final gathering in Singapore, e27, the tech blog managing the event, is organising about 10 smaller Echelon in all South-East Asian countries to detect the startups and make them pitch.
Only the best will attend the finale in Singapore the next two days. We already attended last year and you can see easily that startups on stage have already won something before, the pitches are well conducted, the quality of ideas and team already high, and most of them have anyway a quite comfortable funding. French Cellar for instance, a startup delivering wine in a monthly box with opinion from a reputed sommelier, just announced a $1 million round and they will be pitching on stage for more.
Our founder Martin Pasquier will be part of a panel on Wednesday to talk about (take a breathe in) “The Rapid Growth And Evolution of Southeast Asia’s Technology Ecosystem: How Different Countries Are Tackling The Challenges of Building Their Own Versions of Silicon Valley”, moderated by Wall Street Journal’s Newley Purnell. Wrap-up here in a few days time.
Walkabout SG, a visit of Singapore’s startup spots and community
Then, in a more community-driven initiative, Walkabout SG will offer attendees and startup lovers to visit the top spots in town, and even to pitch in a Mercedes everyday. Yes, we’re in Singapore and happy to be able to afford this kind of ironic stunt : ) Do check the schedule prepared by Kristine Lauria, the startup activist already publishing the weekly and not to be missed The List. It may already be quite packed, but some of the events are open to anyone such as at the JFDI, Singapore’s top web accelerator. Overall, 80 companies are opening their house and 25 events will gather about 1200 people!
Last but not least, we’re happy to announce than in a few minutes, the very first client of Innovation is Everywhere learning tours will dive into the Singapore tech ecosystem. A SVP for Entrepreneurship at one of France’s top company with more than $5bn revenues, he will meet privately with 15 startups we have curated for them in less than 60h, and of course, it helps that most of them will gather at Echelon Singapore. He will get some rest on the long trip back to Paris.
It’s quite a turning point for us and we are happy to guide corporates in such a fast-moving environment!