Anthill Ventures, an investment and speed-scaling ecosystem for startups, today announced that 15 startups have been shortlisted for A-Scale, an Asian market access programme based in Singapore. A cohort of 15 startups from Singapore, India, Israel, and the US with cutting-edge solutions for health tech, media tech and urban tech have been selected after thoughtful evaluation of over 300 applications received from across the world.
This programme has the support of Enterprise Singapore—a Singapore Government's agency that is championing enterprise development. It is also in charge of developing Singapore's start-up ecosystem. Anthill Ventures is part of the agency's 'Startup SG Accelerator' initiative providing mentorship and resources to support the growth of startups based here.
The six-month market access programme aims at speed-scaling 18 startups every year by providing them with targeted mentorship on business model refinement and go-to-market strategies. Through A-Scale, the shortlisted startups will gain access to over 100 global subject matter experts, over 50 corporate partners and an opportunity to implement their smart products and solutions in the public sector via government organizations. The programme will help each of the selected start-ups to raise funding of up to US$ 1 million and an additional syndicated US$ 20 million smart capital via Anthill's co-investors network.
The shortlisted media tech and health tech startups will benefit from Anthill Ventures' existing market access programmes and speed-scaling ecosystem in India: Anthill Studio and Lumos respectively.
Speaking on this occasion, Mr Prasad Vanga, Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Anthill Ventures said, "Anthill Ventures expands its footprint from India, US, Israel to Singapore region with the launch of a world-class market access programme, A-Scale early this year. The batch of 15 super aspiring startups selected for A-Scale is a testimony of Anthill's commitment towards building a strong innovation ecosystem globally. We have selected startups across India, Singapore, Israel, and the US with some path breaking and trend-setting solutions for health tech, urban tech and media tech space ultimately converging to shape future lifestyles."
Anthill Ventures and Enterprise Singapore launched the shortlisted startups in Singapore today. This event had Rana Daggubati, Indian Actor and Investor, Suresh Productions; Clarice Chen, Deputy Director for Enterprise Singapore's Startup Development; Ran Poliakine, Serial Entrepreneur & Investor; Anjali Ajaikumar, VP, Strategy & Quality, Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG); Malcolm Chua, Head of Business Development, ST Innospark, as key speakers and panellists.
Edwin Chow, Enterprise Singapore's Assistant Chief Executive Officer, said, "Participating startups in the programme will be able to benefit from Anthill's networks, knowledge and funding as they scale up from Singapore into Southeast Asia, India and beyond. Accelerators like Anthill make a difference to Singapore's startup ecosystem and we look forward to more of such programmes being done here."
The startups were evaluated based on the quality of technology solutions, growth potential, product readiness and scalable business model. The selected startups are focused on building new technologies- based solutions across healthcare, smart cities, media tech, among others. The entrepreneurs have developed solutions using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), visual effects (VFX), cloud rendering, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and big data.
Here's a quick look at the startups selected for the A-Scale programme:
