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The company had invested in a total of 20 startups within 10 months of operation
500 Startups’ Thailand-focussed arm 500 TukTuks announced 10 companies that are on board of their second batch of investments, claiming to have sealed the status as “the most active investor in Thailand” with a total of 20 startups within 10 months since it started operating in the country.
“Thailand is becoming more open and active about startups. 500 TukTuks is now as active as ever and we plan to start raising for TukTuks fund II next year already,” said 500 TukTuks Managing Partner Khun Moo in an official statement.
The 10 companies that are on the list are:
- Piggipo: A mobile app to help track credit cards spending
- Fastwork: A marketplace for freelancers
- GizTix: Online marketplace for logistics/shipping service in Sotheast Asia
- T2P DeepPocket: e-Wallet for unbanked individuals with social financing capability
- Ginja: Thailand’s first 24/7 on-demand food and convenience delivery service
- Ticketbox: A ticketing platform which allows everyone to create events and sell tickets
- Finnomena: A crowdsourced investment services for investors to find unbiased articles and researches, social trading and goal-driven investment tools
- OneStockHome: An online platform which provides building materials with trust worthy services and competitive price
- Skilllane: An online education platform where experts can list their courses and students can learn anywhere, anytime
- StockRadars: An app which helps users invest and source stock by using the entire market data to analyse and indicate stocks that match criteria
Also Read: Lessons learnt from a startup rejected by 500 Startups, Techstars and Y Combinator
How does 500 TukTuks managed to invest in 20 companies within 10 months since it first operated?
“First of all, it is 500’s strategy to invest in a lot of companies for the purpose of diversification; and 500 TukTuks sets our own goal to invest in at least one to two companies every month,” explained Senior Investment Manager Mameaw Sapprasert in an e-mail to e27.
“And the secret is, we never stop looking for hot startups!” she added.
There are several criteria that the 500 TukTuks team looks for in a founder.
“We really pay attention to the team when we invest, as we believe that no matter how great the ideas are, they could not be executed with the bad team,” said Sapprasert.
“We look for passionate founders who are willing to commit and can sacrifice normal life to build something greater than themselves, along with supporting team that works together really well,” she added.
She also stated that the company is particularly interested in edutech and real-estate-tech startups.
Also Read: 500 Startups-backed university mentoring platform launches career mentorship service
This year has been an exciting time for Thailand’s startup ecosystem with heightened attention from various stakeholders such as the government, investors, banks, and corporate giants.
There are more fundings coming round and events organised to support local startups, and according to Sapprasert, the government even loosen up the laws to facilitate businesses.
Last week, Thai government statedt that they are allocating US$570 million fund to support the country’s startup ecosystem.
While 500 TukTuks certainly welcomed this move, the company also believes that it all comes down to how the government is handling the fund allocation.
“It could be extremely useful for startups if the government exercises and spends this funding wisely. For example, we encourage matching funds rather than giving out easy money for new startups because it potentially could cause risk of bubble in the future,” she explained.
There are also more foreign investment coming, especially from China.
“We would say it is looking good in terms of fundraising prospect,” Sapprasert concluded.
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Image Credit: Alan Haverty on Unsplash
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