Bangkok--8 Dec--Brand Now
Echelon Thailand 2015, a two-day intensive conference held this November 26 and 27 at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre, brought together the best of the Mekong region's burgeoning technology startup community with over 1,000 delegates, 68 world-class speakers and 67 exhibitors.
The conference highlight - a highly-anticipated search for the region's top startups - culminated with a pitching segmen at Echelon Thailand. E-marketplace for worldwide logistics services GIZTIX was crowned the winner of Echelon Thailand 2015's Startup LaunchPad, and walked away with the title of Most Promising Startup. Their vision is to be the world's centre for buying and selling logistics services by bringing together local individual transporters and truck drivers to join their service fleets, in order to ensure shippers get the best prices, and help transporters get more sales.
Out of 100 applications, 15 teams were selected to pitch in front of judges on the first day of Echelon Thailand in Bangkok. Following which, five startups were shortlisted to present in front of a live audience and a panel of five judges, including:• Adrian Vanzyl, CEO, Ardent Capital
• Harry Wang, Founding Partner, Linear Venture
• Andrew Kvalseth, Head of Strategy and Innovation Division, dtac
• Victor Chua, Investment Director, Gobi Partners
• Albert Shyy, Associate, GREE Ventures
As part of the grand prize, GIZTIX received three years' access to BizSpark, BizSpark Plus and US$120,000 worth of Azure credits from LaunchPad Prize Sponsor Microsoft. These prizes will allow GIZTIX access to software and tools like Visual Studio and Office, alongside training courses and a vibrant technology community. Additionally, the GIZTIX team received a pair of tickets to Echelon Asia Summit 2016, and an exhibition booth at the international summit to be held in Singapore next June.
Echelon is Asia's premier technology and business conference that celebrates the startup industry and its change-makers. It is organised to convene the region's tech space, investors and in?uencers to discuss Asia's emerging trends and ascend to a higher value proposition.
The Echelon global series will journey through Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and India in 2016 preceded by a 2-month long search for Asia's next Most Promising Startup in March. More information can be found at e27.co/echelon
WINNER
1. GIZTIX (Thailand)
Booth T1/T2
Giztix (e27.co/startup/giztix) GIZTIX is an e-marketplace for worldwide logistics services; services include Truck, Freight and Customs Clearance. We help Shippers (who wants goods shipped) to get the best prices in seconds and help Transporters (who operate transportation services) to get more sales. Our vision is to be the world's centre for buying and selling Logistics services for firms like Agoda does. Moreover, we bring local individual transporters, anyone who has trucks, to join our service fleets like Uber does, in order to make sure that Shippers get the best prices in GIZTIX.
2. BaganTrade (Myanmar)
Booth L5 BaganTrade (e27.co/company/bagantrade-2) was founded on April 2015 with the aim to bridge Myanmar and the global market by providing an online marketplace for trading and other business opportunities. It claims to be Myanmar's first and only online platform to promote local businesses and engage globally. According to the company website, within six months of the launch, there are 500 plus registered companies and 2000 plus products
3. Q&Me (Vietnam)
Booth L2 Q&Me (e27.co/startup/asia-plus-inc) is a mobile app from Vietnam that provides market research services as a great alternative to traditional survey methods. It functions at one-third of the usual cost, has 10x speed with maintaining high-quality through its unique research platform. Since the service launch, it has increased the number of survey panelists to 90,000 people.
4. ZmyHome (Thailand)
Booth T1/T2 ZmyHome (e27.co/startup/z-home-ltd) is a home portal exclusively for owners to list their property for sale and rent, no agents allowed. The main goal is to eliminate high commission and illiquidity of real estate market. In addition, we would like to assist customers to understand market and minimize their risks in buying and selling houses. Their goal after establishing the reliable property portal is offering services for home valuation, market monitoring, mortgage center, escrow account and whatever else is needed in Thai real estate industry.
5. u-Hop (Philippines)
Booth L7 u-Hop (e27.co/startup/u-hop-com) is the world's first app-based on-demand shuttle service and has been featured in tech conferences around the world. In just four months, the company gained over 550,000 active members, 17,000 active drivers and covered six cities. It will expand in 27 major Philippines cities by the end of 2015 and 10 Asian countries by June 2016.