Startups, tapping into the Asian network through ASIA BEAT(아시아비트)
November 25th, 2014- ASIA BEAT, taking place in Taipei Taiwan from December 1-2, is launching an ambitious kick off with Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. It’s an ultimate effort coming off in the form of Asian startup battle as well as VC networking event being sponsored by the countries’ government officials, startup media and other relevant foundations.
10 Korean homebred startups will be participating in the event. Bridge Mobile (Jungwoo Choi, CEO), was winner of this year’s ‘I am Global Venture’ and lauded by the Silicon Valley media, Ubergizmo. Style Share (Jayoung Yoon, CEO) which was recently funded of $2.5M from LB Investment as well as 500videos (Ho Yang, CEO) getting an investment from Big Basin Capital and Bon Angels. The remaining seven startups are also prominent prospects either closing first round of investments or winning on international startup prizes. These 10 startups along with other 30 from 5 different countries will compete for the first prize and the honorary title of ‘the best Asia startup’ in the main event, Startup Battle.
This year’s ASIA BEAT will play a crucial role as a global gathering and networking session for Asian startups and VCs. Venturecon Taiwan 2014, an exclusive invite-only event, will be the icing on the cake by having more than 100 VCs in across Asia to ripple the effect of Asian startup investment scene. Junghee Ryu will be the main panel from Korea. He has been a successful serial entrepreneur, exiting his previous startup ‘Olaworks’ to Intel and now the CEO of Future Play, a mix between accelerator and an incubator.
During the event will be the special inside-event ‘Korea Market Entry Session’. Here, eminent local angel investors, tech-entrepreneurs, and VCs will share their insight of cracking into Korean market to Japan, China and other Southeast Asian startups. Taekkyung Lee, Co-Founder of Daum Communications (currently DaumKakao) Primer accelerator, and Junghee Ryu, CEO of Future Play, and Daniel Kang, Managing Director of Softbank Ventures Korea will engage as speakers.
There will also be a panel discussion between Jungwook Lim, managing director of Startup Alliance Korea, Changsu Lee, CEO of 5Rocks / VP of Publisher Analytics and Insights of Tapjoy (5Rocks was acquired to Tapjoy only few months ago), and Simon Lee from Flitto, who was the last grand-prix winner of IDEAS Show from last year.
Startup Alliance Korea (Jungwook Lim, Managing Director) and China ICT market specialized media Platum (Sangrae Jo) are the official sponsors of this event. The sponsors were in charge of designing the outline of ‘Korea Market Entry Session’ and supporting 10 Korean startups with flights, hotels, and subsistence payment.
There has been a lot of local Asian startup events scattered across the region but the pan-Asian startup gathering was few and far between. ASIA BEAT throws a significant meaning in this context by sharing the latest startup news and events across Asia in real time and further continues the thread to bear practical outcomes.
“ The dynamic scene of Asian startups equate to innovative services to change our lifestyle” said Jungwook Lim, the managing director of Startup Alliance Korea. He also added that ASIA BEAT will be the source of communication for Asian startup ecosystem including Korea.
Sangrae Jo, CEO of Platum added, “Asia will be the next mobile hub in the future. Kakao Talk, Line and WeChat are just the tip of the iceberg”. He also welcomed startups participating in ASIA BEAT and hoped this event will be a fun networking party to entrepreneurs and investors to fast track their business success.