Yeah.

    Let's watch a

    morning for

    Henry was curious about medicine for children by himself on the 1st.

    BNI.

    JLK Inspection of CBSE 2019.

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    May I have your attention?

    Please, we will soon commence our presentations here at the FosterBridge session stage.

    So for those who are in the lobby now, please make your way to the conference hall and please take your seats.

    And the facilitation of today's presentations.

    If you have any electronic devices, please set them to silent mode.

    Thank you in advance.

    Let's walk you through it again.

    We're going to pitch just like we did yesterday.

    We're going to be in the bridge room in a moment, so if any of you who are going to be joining us, if you haven't already, please do so, and if you could all take your seats now.

    And we'd also appreciate it if you could put any electronic devices you have on vibrate or silent mode so that we can keep things running smoothly.

    We'll get started in just a moment.

    Okay.

    We will commence shortly, so once again, please get ready for the start of our event.

    Thank you.

    Ladies and gentlemen, we will commence the presentations here on the stage in about two minutes.

    So now we ask you to please be seated.

    Thank you very much for your kindness and cooperation.

    And you can take your refreshments and coffee inside the hall. So please have them and be seated. Thank you.

    Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you.

    We'll be joining you here shortly to begin the presentation.

    You're welcome to bring in your coffee refreshments.

    Please come prepared to join us, and if you'd all like to take a seat, thank you.

    Good morning everyone. Good morning.

    Thank you very much for joining us back to the FosterBridge 2024.

    And now we will begin the presentations at this Bridge session.

    So, once again, for your information, this Bridge session is a relay pitching event.

    where global accelerators leading the startup ecosystem and companies are joining this session and delivering their presentations to our audience.

    So today we have several companies who will be on the stage and delivering their presentations.

    So, ladies and gentlemen, we ask for your active participation until the very end of the FosterBridge 2024.

    So now it's time to welcome our first presenter to the stage.

    Our first presentation will be by Yasuhiro Tamaoka.

    From DEEPCORE,

    and we'd like to welcome him to the stage with a warm round of applause. Please welcome him.

    Good morning everyone,

    I'm from DEEPCORE. Please call me Yasu.

    Yes, Yasu, Yasu and the two organizers, thank you for a great evening last night.

    And to everyone who joined us for the first session of today, thank you very much.

    And my personal connection to Korea - my ex-guard car friend was Korean and I have both good and bad memories of that.

    This time, it will be a good one.

    Yep. OK, let's set my presentation.

    We are a venture capital firm based in Japan.

    And the reason why?

    The DEEPCORE comes from the fact that we created the funds dedicated to AI in the age of deep learning and the core for disruptive innovations in our mission.

    Also, we are a Japanese venture capital firm, but we are also-

    We are also active in overseas investments and run an acceleration program.

    For overseas startups,

    startups, and we have been focusing on AI since before the emergence of LLM, and it has an office and incubation facility nearby the University of Tokyo.

    Yes, and we also support engineers and researchers.

    Yeah, but I hope you will remember that DEEPCORE is a globally oriented AI VC with a strong community.

    Yeah, and to tell you about our structure, company structure, we are an investment company under the SoftBank Group, but we are not corporate venture capital.

    but the independent venture capital. And we can work with SoftBank if it's a startup's request, but that is not necessary and...

    Yep, and therefore, as a friend,

    We purely invest in AI startups and support their growth through the KERNEL community.

    As you can see, in addition, we also support setups for introducing AI engineers and researchers to our portfolio companies through KERNEL.

    And we are currently managing a second fund of about $100 million and we've already invested in about 140 startups.

    Many of our limited partners, Japanese financial institutions and all of the big three Japanese mega banks have invested in our funds.

    It means that these banks cover the bank accounts of 90% of Japanese companies and have a strong connection to the enterprises.

    So if you would like to connect with Japanese companies.

    Please contact me.

    Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, we focus on AI, but we do not limit our investment to any industry.

    But we invest broadly, and about 20% of our investments are in overseas startups, and those are our flagship startups.

    But those can be easily found on Google or publicly.

    So I won't go into details here, but if you're interested.

    Please visit our website.

    DEEPCORE,

    And they have allowed 140 startups on the website.

    By the way, I will introduce my boss Nicky.

    He used to be Masterson's right-hand man.

    And he led the SoftBank's investment department until 2016.

    During that time, he also invested in overseas startups and Groupon was a company the bank invested in after.

    She was impressed by its founder, and I also want to briefly describe the unicorn company.

    About 700 AI engineers and researchers belong to the University of Tokyo nearby.

    And we believe that.

    University of Tokyo is at the forefront of university launches and startups in Japan,

    which is why we established this incubation space at this location and there are a lot of

    startups - like 600 startups originating from the University of Tokyo.

    And which is a top number of startups by university in Japan?

    And in addition, the number of IPOs of startups originating from the University of Tokyo has reached 25.

    And it's also the highest number among universities in Japan as well.

    To further accelerate the startup ecosystem around the University of Tokyo and to enable AI engineers and researchers to seamlessly

    start their own businesses.

    We have established Japan's first AI incubation facility.

    We offer various programs according to the phases of our community members.

    And out of our 700 members, 100 companies have already started up, and we have invested in 30 of them.

    And over our 700 members, 70%.

    AI engineers and researchers.

    But we also have some domain experts.

    And the business professionals, as innovation doesn't happen only with the engineers.

    Yeah, lastly, I would like to make a few announcements.

    We will launch Japan's first accelerator program entirely in English since 2022, and this program supports startups from Japan.

    who want to expand their business overseas and also support startups from overseas.

    Who wants to enter the Japanese market?

    We will soon be announcing our next batch and looking for

    The new startups and the new mentors from VCs.

    This is a great opportunity to access the Japanese market and connect with Japanese startups.

    I think so.

    If you are interested, let's talk later. Yep.

    Yeah, that's our investees from the KERNEL and we.

    We'll take actions towards the future and we would be happy to work with those who can take action together with us.

    And I'm afraid I'm out.

    I haven't talked much about Japan yet, but if you are interested in the startup ecosystem in Japan, including the University of Tokyo.

    I could tell you individually, so let's talk about it.

    Maybe. Yep. Thank you very much.

    Thank you very much for kicking off the discussion.

    And thank you for delivering your valuable insights on the startup ecosystem of Japan.

    Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

    Now it's time to welcome our second speaker to the stage.

    The second speaker is from ANOBAKA and her name will be Arisa Makihara.

    And ladies and gentlemen.

    When she takes the podium, let's welcome her with a warm round of applause.

    Please welcome her to the stage. Please come up to the stage.

    Hi, good morning everyone. I'm Arisa Makihara and let's talk about our fun activity.

    Sid, formerly of Anobaka.

    BKC Seed Stage.

    from ANOBAKA.

    Thank you for inviting me to this great event today. Let's talk about our

    fans, and this is my

    Fans mission 'Empowering My Dreams.' 'Empowering My Dreams' reflects our commitment to recognizing and nurturing the lost diamonds.

    and we have 12 members.

    Members now and we can support.

    The entrepreneurs to go to global market and our funds came from a gaming company.

    Do you know Croft Games?

    Do you know Captain Tsubasa?

    Do you know Tsubasa and Bridge? And love life?

    When our company made these IP games, but then we started to

    Copper Venture Capital from 2015.

    And we invested in many startups.

    Our portfolio is over 180 now. And this year we invested in many startups. So we invested in 185 companies for eight years.

    So we are a very active investor, so we can.

    Collaborate with many.

    Global Venture Capital,

    So let's talk.

    Please let me check our website and if you want to contact them, please let me know.

    And this is our portfolio analysis and...

    This 40% of our portfolio is what they didn't have before.

    Service, but we can support them.

    So, no product is OK, just right, just founder and co-founder is OK, so we can help them to build the business model.

    So yeah, and...

    Please look at this percentage, and 95% are surviving.

    This is...

    High percentage of the investment stage.

    Why? That's why we can do it.

    It is we can support to find a great partner to get the fundraising and M&A so we can support to survive.

    Yes. And let me introduce our portfolio companies and Sandra.

    Is it the generative AI and music service?

    And it's like, Suno, do you know? Suno?

    Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

    And please look at this graph and Generative AI can help this service.

    So you can make any music on the website. So please look at the Sound Rose website and second one is...

    L3, and this is AI-based illustration image creation service, and this founder is 22 years old and he graduated from Tokyo University.

    He's so genius.

    So if you want to make a cute character, please use this service.

    Dawn of the generative AI revolution.

    We invest in many Generative AI startups now, for example Photographer AI, Inc.

    This service can make images for easy service.

    So if you are a creator or an agency company, you can use this. You can make any background images easily.

    And second one is AI consciousness.

    Service view if you want to talk.

    Characters you can talk to anytime and they can support you in every situation.

    And our ticket size is about 200K to 500K USD.

    And we focus on pre-seed in these days, so our valuation is about that and we can follow on.

    So we can invest many times and we have an AI community and we can.

    We have many sourcing channels and

    We are we.

    We have a great partner in the AI era.

    And so.

    OK. And if you want to know the AI trend, we can.

    We can help startups.

    So yeah, yeah, yeah, so one is

    WDAi is our partnership company and Microsoft is also. Yes, and let me...

    introduce our community communication activity.

    We have big pitch event in Japan. It's about...

    130 investors came from this event and our portfolio company could get fundraising from this.

    Oh yes, and...

    I want to talk about our background again, and empowering MUD Dreams is our vision.

    So maybe we can support together.

    For love of diamonds.

    Thank you.

    Thank you for the presentation.

    Now you may return to your seat.

    Thank you, and ladies and gentlemen, it's time to welcome our third speaker to the stage.

    We are today joined by Everett Kamin from Gemini Capital Partners, who is delivering his presentation to all of our participants.

    So now please join me in welcoming him to the stage with a big round of applause.

    Good.

    OK, I think it's a much smaller crowd than we anticipated.

    So I'm going to make this a little bit more of a personal conversation and go off script.

    The presentation is there.

    But we'll tell more of a story about myself and some of the things we do, and some of our interests in Korea and the healthcare ecosystem.

    And why we have such great interest in it.

    A little bit of personal story about me is that.

    When I was very young, I had been attacked by a dog.

    And to the point at which my whole face was scarred and I was almost killed.

    But I was actually saved by my dog that heard me screaming from a mile away and came rushing to save me before it was too late.

    So I could have either been afraid of dogs the rest of my life or lean into the fact that one had saved my life.

    Leaned into the latter, started a company at 12 and scaled that until 17 and then sold it off.

    Which gave me the opportunity to pay.

    My undergrad, my MBA and my first real estate property.

    So the reason why I tell that story is, you know,

    Taking your fears, channeling them and making them a force for good was a lesson that I learned very early on in life. In that process.

    And unfortunately very early on in life, I lost most of my family to debilitating diseases such as oncology, diabetes, cardiovascular disease.

    So again, I wanted to face my fears.

    Channel them and be a force for good.

    And I figured the best way to do so was to educate myself on healthcare initiatives and technologies,

    Not only coming from the States, but on a global macro stage.

    And, funny enough, my career took me to Seoul, Korea, in the 90s, and I started my career here in finance.

    Because I thought that was the best way to learn about healthcare on the global macro stage.

    And taking an apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs, took those wares back to the States and started working in healthcare investment banking.

    More in the US,

    So Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, really understanding the deep healthcare systems and hospital systems in a stateside capacity.

    But then I ended up going to private equity at Bank of America and then we started doing more global deals again.

    Healthcare initiatives.

    From there, I ended up transferring over to a sovereign wealth fund, and that really turbocharged my career and gave me a global perspective.

    Connectivity into healthcare and how intertwined it actually is.

    In a 10-year period of time, from 2008 till 2019, I lived and worked in 30 different countries.

    Having tier 1 access to health ministers all over the world.

    Doing the first ever dual listing of a London and Warsaw Stock Exchange listed company.

    Taking public seats, public-private board seats, working with founders in Bahrain, Middle East, Russia, China, Vietnam, Hungary, Poland, Czech, the list goes on.

    And again, you know, learning about these.

    Apologies.

    And these advancements that came down the pike from a global stage.

    So then we endeavored to invest in other companies.

    And that sovereign wealth fund spun out of private equity vehicle, and that private equity vehicle spun out of family office.

    I started working with a family office through a relationship that I had made in the '90s in Seoul, Korea.

    And that is now a family office of two families called Gemini Capital Partners, and Gemini Capital Partners is a Hong Kong family office and a Korean family office.

    So we have two family offices.

    One in Seoul and one in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

    I myself spend most of my time in London, four times a year in Korea.

    And it used to be that we would go and try to find companies in the West that were doing innovative things that could help enhance our portfolio and our companies in the East.

    In Korea, and more recently, it's been the latter.

    And because of that, we've actually developed a strategy to invest in companies more in the Seed to Series A range.

    In digital health and medical devices.

    So, again, things that would combat the afflictions that my family suffered from at a very early age in oncology, diabetes and cardiovascular.

    But we also look at companies in women's health and mental health.

    Through that, we're generally looking at companies that are disruptive in the diagnostics or therapeutic stage, and in looking at these type of companies.

    Our teams have a robust skill set, so our team in Asia is more of an investment focus.

    So we have 30 years of

    connectivity, relationships, traction and touch points all over the world.

    Our team in the UK is more venture focused.

    Focus Seed to Series A companies.

    They're clinicians, scientists, ex-med tech, pharmaceutical executives, and perhaps a couple investment professionals.

    Where we really pride ourselves is our, I would say, clinical validation with the companies we work with.

    So when we're making an investment in a company, we're not really investing in it, we're partnering with it. So when we're partnering with that company, we're...

    In our deep scientific due diligence, our tech transfer office, academia, hospital system connectivity, really helping that company scale, grow and get the touch points that it needs in markets.

    it does not have readily available access.

    Let me see if I can highlight a few things that can actually be a little bit more of a case study here.

    Most people would say, you know, there's all these technologies of where we want things to be.

    I'd like to give you some case studies of where things are.

    Some of the companies that we invested in, one of them is particularly called

    Before I give the name, imagine this, imagine you go in to get a cancer treatment where you have tumors.

    Metastasizing in your liver, as in growing from your liver and starting to spread to other parts of your body.

    Instead of going to a traditional operating room, you go into the hospital.

    A machine is wheeled in, it uses ultrasound technology, and it locates tumors in your body within an hour, non-invasively.

    You're out of the hospital already feeling better.

    You don't have to imagine a technology like that.

    It actually exists, it's a company called HistoSonics, it's been FDA approved.

    One of the founding team is a Korean American.

    The AI chipsets that they use for their technology are built in Korea.

    And you know, these are the kind of things that we invest in, that are the technologies that if they were around when most of my family members were around, they would still be around.

    And that's what we endeavor to do when we partner with founders and we invest in companies.

    That really change the landscape of what is possible in healthcare.

    And in Korea, again, I'll highlight a couple companies that you may perhaps think that technologies don't exist.

    You know, Korea is at the forefront of AI and algorithm technology for image recognition.

    Now take that technology and apply it to the medical sphere, and you have companies that can identify cancers.

    Prior to them, far prior to them getting to the point at which they're inoperable or they've spread beyond any manageable case.

    You don't have to again imagine a technology like that, that is based in Britain.

    because that best of breed company is called Lunit and it's a Korean company and it's raised over $150 million and is already scaling.

    Not only in Korea, but it's taking its technology and scaling in the US, not the opposite.

    And then there's another company that also has algorithm technology to detect a stroke or an aneurysm prior to it happening in a far, far advanced stage.

    To the point at which it is, I would say, the early onset of such a condition.

    So you can save lives and improve patient outcomes.

    And again, this is not a technology that you have to think about being readily available.

    It's already FDA approved and being used in the US, and that company is called JLK Inspection.

    A lot of these are coast-to-coast companies and they come from Korea, so these are the kind of companies like that.

    There's another company called Huinno Apps, which is the number one sleep tech company using biosignals.

    Aiming to basically enhance sleep solutions and overall health in the wellness space.

    There's another company called MediBloc, which is leveraging patient data so that patients can take ownership of their data.

    As well as an understanding of who's using and leveraging their data for what purposes is being used.

    Democratizing healthcare again, making patients have ownership of their own data.

    What we really like to do is democratize healthcare so that when you invest in these types of companies.

    It's no longer a question of where you live.

    determines how you live.

    Where you live, it really evens the playing field.

    These types of technologies can be used and disseminated in first world countries, second world countries, third world countries.

    And that's the real power and leverage point of the type of companies that we look to invest in,

    As I said, we would love to meet and talk to any companies within the healthcare sphere.

    Doing amazing things, amazing founders with big dreams.

    And we're looking to be partnered with those types of companies who aspire to disrupt the healthcare space.

    Really change the way the treatments are delivered, so that people do not have to face the same impossible decisions that I was faced with as a child.

    And limited options that I had to grapple with, and that's why I got into healthcare in the first place.

    So again, thank you to our hosts and thank you to everybody at FosterBridge that's brought us together.

    And I encourage you to reach out to me through any of the links that they provided through the program and discuss anything.

    Healthcare related. Thank you very much.

    Thank you, Mr. Coleman, for your time and sharing your insights on Caribbean startups.

    Appeal to the US investors.

    Thank you and ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time this morning.

    This brings us to the end of all the presentations prepared for you at this morning session at the bridge session of FosterBridge 2024.

    And we will now have a short break for 35 minutes.

    And please use.

    To have some conversation with overseas investors and participating companies as well.

    And ladies and gentlemen, please note that we do have lunch time here at this venue.

    And lunch will be served to your seat from 11:30.

    11:30 And for those who requested special dietary needs in advance, please be seated at table A&B so that we can serve the right dish to your seat.

    Thank you once again for your participation.

    And enjoy your lunch break and come back to this hall by 1:00 P.M.

    1:00 P.M., where we do also have some presentations from investors.

    Thank you very much for your attendance.

    Thank you note.

    This concludes the announcements we have prepared for the morning.

    We'd like to give you about a half hour to take a break and network with those of you who have joined us, and we'll be back here at 11:30 for a meal.

    If you have any special dietary requirements, please be seated at tables 8 and B, and we'll make sure you're served the right meal.

    Enjoy your meal, and we've got some presentations this afternoon as well, until 1:00.

    Please enter here. Thank you.

    Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please.

    Now it's time to eat lunch together, so we'll serve a boxed meal to your seat.

    Momentarily,

    So those who are in the lobby now, please enter the hall and be seated so that we can see which seats are taken and we will serve the dish to your tables.

    Thank you.

    And for those who asked for special dietary needs in advance, we'd like to ask you to please take your seats at the table.

    Thank you.

    It's now time for lunch.

    Please be seated so we can serve your meal quickly

    So if you'd like to dine, please enter the room and be seated.

    Also, if you have any special dietary requirements, please be seated at the AB table so that we can serve you accordingly.

    Enjoy your meal, everyone, and we'll see you back here at 1:00.

    Please enjoy.

    Lunchtime, and I hope the food will satisfy your appetites as well.

    And please enter the hall by 1:00 PM.

    Thank you and please enjoy your lunch.

    I.

    BNI.

    BNI.

    BNI.

    BNI.

    BNI.

    Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?

    In about 5 minutes, we'll continue with the presentations at this Bridge Station.

    Ladies and gentlemen, a quick announcement.

    In about five minutes or so, we're going to continue with the Bridge session pitch here on stage.

    If you're joining us, if you haven't already, please come in and help us get you seated.

    We ask for your cooperation.

    If you want to join this session, please now enter the hall and be seated.

    Thank you very much for your cooperation.

    And we do have some presentations for you to enjoy, so we ask you to please stay with us until the very end.

    We have 8 companies waiting for you at this stage.

    So ladies and gentlemen, please join us at this session.

    Thank you, Natoya.

    We're getting ready for .

    I hope you'll stick with us and we'll have a great time, and we're going to start in just a few minutes, so if you'd like to come in.

    Okay, we'll be right on, thank you.

    Okay, folks, this is the time we promised.

    We're going to jump right into the pitching.

    Ready set.

    Hello everyone, welcome back to the bridge session.

    I hope you had a great lunch time.

    So ladies and gentlemen, please stay with us until the very end.

    We have 8 companies waiting for you to give their presentations, so the first company is MEET VENTURES.

    And for MEET VENTURES,

    Here at the stage, we will be joined by Mr. Farhan Firdaus, who will be presenting about his company.

    So please welcome him, please come up to the stage and let's welcome him with a big round of applause.

    Other side of the podium.

    Testing 1-2-3.

    OK, great, yeah, so I hope you guys had a good lunch.

    And yeah, if you need to rest for a while, be my guest.

    OK, so I'm just going to be doing two or three things.

    One is just going through what we do.

    Uh, an introduction of MEET VENTURES, uh.

    Secondly, especially for startups in the house.

    Um, just to share a little bit more about the Singapore ecosystem.

    And, um, maybe a little bit of best practices.

    OK, next.

    Oh, it's me.

    OK, OK, yeah.

    So I think there are two parts of what we do.

    On one aspect, we are investors.

    Uh, but we are also ecosystem builders, so this is the ecosystem side.

    Um, for technology-wise, we've done multiple accelerators for different types of tech.

    Umm, I would say, AI, IoT, blockchain, et cetera.

    Uh, we've done big data for the last four to five years and so on.

    Uh, we've also done market access for many different countries, Southeast Asia, Korea, China, India, Japan and so on.

    So as I've shared, uh, there are two parts for the ecosystem work that we do.

    We work with corporate, government agencies and universities.

    Umm for corporate,

    Uh, usually with multinational companies, government agencies, we work with Singapore, Korean, Japanese, Chinese governments.

    And universities?

    We've worked with some of the top Asian universities, and some of the work that we do with the universities has been published in some of the top journals.

    Such as the Strategic Management Journal.

    Right, so we've got offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, uh, Singapore being our regional HQ, and Indonesia being close to my heart, right?

    Um.

    OK, so this is the leadership team.

    Um, my managing partner, John, he was formerly from SC Innovate, ex-KPMG.

    Matthieu was formerly with PWC, M&A, right?

    So these are just some of the members of my team.

    Right, these are our investor partners, uh, those that we work with for deal flow, our community partners, so that we work with.

    Uh, to share again deal flow and other events.

    So a little bit about the investment.

    What do we do?

    Um, uh yeah.

    So I think, uh, we write $100K to $500K checks.

    I was just speaking to somebody just now who comes from North America and was surprised at the quantum.

    That this part of the world writes for early stage, uh, and I said, 'Welcome to Asia,' right?

    So I think it's a little bit different and I think that's where events like this are very important.

    Because it, you know it.

    It helps us to

    It exposes you to the different geographical areas for you to understand better and operate better.

    So, um, yeah.

    So that's what we do.

    Uh, we focus on VC space, uh, and yeah, we're industry agnostic Asia focus.

    Right, so I've mentioned this already and most of you have this in your thesis as well. So I won't touch on this.

    Right, so these are just some of the companies in our portfolio that, um, yeah.

    Again, it's a new fund, it's a young fund.

    Uh, we just started it this year, but these were some of the companies that we've invested in, uh, from our balance sheet previously, right?

    Um yeah, so Inno is from Singapore, Stayhere is from Malaysia, and then Menthogram is an Indian founder and...

    And we have a couple, a couple more. One of them, I think from the Philippines, just exited. Yeah.

    OK, yeah, so I think some of the ecosystem work that we do, um, just to name a few, right?

    I'll just skip this.

    Yeah, so we work very closely with different government agencies as well, and yeah, so we're open.

    If anyone has good companies, let me know, right? Yeah?

    So I think incubating best practices, umm, just sharing what different countries do.

    Umm yeah. So I think similar to umm, Korea, I think.

    For Singapore, a lot of the incubation is umm, kind of like overseen by the government.

    And so I'm just sharing like, what are some of the best practices that we do in Singapore?

    This is particularly for startups that are expanding overseas to Southeast Asia.

    So, I think my advice would be to make sure that you're ready to venture abroad.

    Make sure that you have a very good foundation, right?

    And at least pre-A.

    That's normally what we see.

    Uh, you, you need to understand the markets that you want to expand to.

    Umm, you create a go-to-market strategy. Uh, don't just...

    Uh, don't just say, 'Oh, you know, I want to go to this market.'

    Everyone is going to this market.

    You need to understand the demands, you need to understand your competitors in that market and so on.

    Um, of course, the next best rule is to pay a visit to the market that you want to expand to.

    And I believe in Korea, the government agencies are very supportive.

    So if you're a startup, or if you're a VC in Korea, please get your startups.

    to work very closely with the government agencies that have programs that bring the startups to different markets.

    Right, uh, so some that I know are agencies like KTO, KOTRA and so on.

    So, um, yeah.

    So I think once a startup sees that there's a lot of demand for their service, then I think they can consider setting up an office.

    OK, so I'm just going to briefly talk about Singapore.

    I'm not an ambassador, so I'll just quickly touch through, I think.

    Singapore is a umm, popular destination for

    Uh, Korean umm.

    startup founders who want to maybe

    have their first foot abroad, looking at Asia, right?

    Um, yeah, so this is a little bit of our Silicon Valley one-off.

    Um, so we've got Biopolis, Fusionopolis, Mediapolis, all the places is all in one hub, OK, um, and uh, yeah, so uh.

    Again, Singapore is one of the prominent.

    Uh, I would say, startup hubs in, uh, in Asia, right?

    So, why do you think?

    Like, you know, in administration, you know I used to have no corruption, but recently I had to change it to extremely low corruption.

    OK.

    For those who know, know, okay.

    And then economic factors, of course, we label as an Asian Tiger or Tigress.

    Yeah, OK, and then these are, you know, I think shipping is very similar to, I think, in Korea, you have Busan.

    So again for us shipping is, is a 200 to 300 year old business that has uh been a major part of our economy.

    OK, I think, uh, for us, uh, the items.

    If startups want to expand to uh...

    Uh, to Singapore, uh.

    Do look at what are the industry trade maps.

    Basically, these are the future of the different industries, so manufacturing, built environment, trade and connectivity, domestic services, modern services, lifestyle, et cetera.

    OK, so just quickly.

    Um, yeah.

    I think one of the biggest challenges in Singapore is, uh, the ability to get talent is maybe a little bit- expensive, not a little bit.

    It is, yeah?

    Quite expensive, uh, but it's also, uh, I think, umm, with all the big MNCs in, uh, Singapore.

    I think sometimes startups and SMEs find it difficult to find great talent, right?

    OK, so yeah, so I think, if you're, if you're.

    You're, if you're looking at Singapore as a landing pad.

    You know, these are just some coworking spaces. There's a lot of coworking spaces for everyone.

    Business events, right?

    Tech in Asia and some very good events.

    E27 has got an event as well.

    Echelon, SWITCH, so the government related events in Singapore is SWITCH, and the Singapore Fintech Festival and ATX.

    So these are the three that maybe if you want to come down to.

    You can make sure that you come down during this time when we have SWITCH, so SWITCH is end of the year.

    SWITCH is probably somewhere in between.

    SFF is also end of the year, so SFF is.

    See quite a number of Fintech startups here.

    So SFF might be your event that you want to come to, right?

    So, uh, yeah.

    Yeah. So if you want to work with the universities, these are some of the universities that are very pro.

    Uh, entrepreneurship, OK, startup media.

    Uh, so again, I always tell, uh...

    Startups, if you want to make sure that you are in media, these are just some of the media that you want to make sure you're in tech.

    in Asia: DealStreetAsia, TechInAsia, e27.

    Early stage startups.

    Yup, yeah. So I think how we position ourselves as a, as a, as a fund, or as ABC fund is

    We like to see that we come after the university incubators and then, of course, friends from AngelList and Y Combinator, 500 Startups and so on.

    So we come after that.

    And I think how we can help startups is with market access support.

    Because we have offices in the various countries in Southeast Asia and we position.

    Very focused on Southeast Asia.

    OK, so you see, these are investors, and these are the government agencies that are linked to, you know, that help startups.

    So again, if you are very into tech or science, as far as um in general Enterprise Singapore, JTC.

    If you're focusing on PropTech, if you are into deep tech, you can go and find IMDA.

    Okay, so yeah, so I think, uh, as I segue to my next speaker.

    If you as a startup or as VC, you have startups in your portfolio.

    Looking at Asia, you may look at Singapore as one of your potential landing pads, but also take a look at Indonesia.

    Uh, so again, I segue to Edmund's speech after me.

    Indonesia is also an up and coming location where startup founders would like to explore.

    So for Singapore, I'll be, I'll be very honest.

    Uh, I'm not paid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so I don't have to say super nice things, but I think.

    Singapore, there are a lot of VCs, right?

    Uh, it is like the hub for venture capital, so that's why people come.

    And it's also kind of like a safe launching pad.

    Before they go into the other parts of Southeast Asia.

    Now for Indonesia, it is a very large market, right?

    272 million population,

    And so on, so I'll end my sharing here.

    And remember, if you want to look at Southeast Asia, look at Indonesia.

    Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia.

    I mean, I think the region has a lot to offer in Southeast Asia.

    OK, thank you.

    Thank you very much for your presentation.

    Thank you for sharing some strategies for Southeast Asian success.

    And as he just mentioned, our next speaker is Edmund.

    So once again, we'd like to welcome our next speaker with a big round of applause.

    We have BNI Ventures from speaker Mr. Edmund Carulli.

    So once again, please welcome him with a big round of applause.

    OK. Good afternoon, everyone.

    As we are approaching the end of our conference, just want to say good job to the organizers and thanks for having me here.

    So today I'm going to share a little bit about Indonesia's market landscape and also a little bit about what we do in BNI Ventures.

    OK, so, in terms of digital economy,

    Indonesia still holds the largest market share in Southeast Asia, comprising about 40% of the total transactions in a total market of $90 billion.

    Which is projected to keep growing consistently, to reach about 200 to 360 billion in five years.

    In five years. So the four big sectors that are the main drivers for this.

    Transactions in e-commerce, online transportation like the on-demand transportation, online travel, and also media.

    But on the flip side, what we've seen in the past few years is a really huge drop in the funding side.

    So if you see in 2021, we saw 91 billion funds were deployed in Indonesia.

    But then it goes down to only 1.1.

    A billion dollars in 2023?

    A similar trend we also see in 2024, although it is slightly better than 2023, but we still see a huge drop from the peak in 2021.

    OK, in terms of the breakdown of the funding, we see large, large deals are disappearing.

    Last year, right, if you see in 2022, we see about maybe 25 deals with a range of $25 million and above.

    But this year only three deals.

    And I think this year we see zeros in Indonesia.

    In terms of the startups that got invested, it's still coming, mainly from the e-commerce sector.

    So as like Bukalapak.

    Who went IPO a few years ago?

    And then the supporting ecosystem also comes with it, like for example the payment infrastructures like companies like Xendit and Modalku is also thriving.

    And also in logistics sector which also supported the e-commerce operations like Shipper and also GudangAda.

    OK. And then we zoom in into the fintech sector because that's the sector we are focusing on.

    So the big narrative of fintech in Indonesia is always about

    2 parts.

    It's the underbanked or the unbanked in Indonesia.

    Which comprise more than 60% of population.

    Don't have access to financial services.

    And the second thesis is about

    To leverage the under-leveraged debt to GDP ratio in Indonesia,

    So, compared to neighboring countries, we are lagging behind in terms of debt deployments.

    So those two theses are very, very solid on paper, but in reality, as you see lately, big big startups who got funded in hundreds of millions of dollars.

    BukuKas, Lummo and everything, everything went bust.

    Because in reality, on the ground, it's very hard to.

    To get the technological adoption on the ground.

    So, but overall, the fintech sector is still growing in Indonesia.

    If you see these 4 main sectors from payments, lending, wealth management, and insurance, you can see that it's still growing in double digits.

    And it will continue to grow for the next five years.

    OK, a little bit about...

    BNI or Bangladesh, Indonesia?

    So we are the first established national bank in Indonesia.

    We were established in 1946.

    Fun fact, it was established by the grandparents of the current president.

    It was set up initially as both central bank and commercial bank, but now they have split the role into two separate entities.

    Um, by asset and total loans and total deposits, we are the 4th largest bank in Indonesia.

    We are quite healthy, we are generating about $12 billion in net profit this year, and we strive to be a global bank, not just a local bank.

    So that's why we have presence in multiple countries, including in Seoul.

    We have one branch near the Seoul Station area.

    OK. And in terms of service, we have the full stack of services of our banking from multi-finance?

    Securities, insurance, digital bank, and we also have asset management.

    and the latest one that we set up is BNI Ventures.

    OK, so we have...

    It, essentially, is a corporate venture capital arm of the bank.

    So our mandate is?

    To invest in digital innovations that we could leverage to the benefit of the core businesses.

    So we were established in April 2022, we got the business license in 2023 from OJK, so OJK is like the equivalent of SEC in the US.

    And in 2024, we managed to.

    We have 3 in the portfolio right now, which is Kecilin, Rukita and Fishlog.

    And just last week, we concluded our first incubation program, which I will explain later in the slide.

    OK, this is the whole team, so it's a 20-plus strong team.

    Mixture of people from corporate and also pro hire, like myself, we are led by Ted.

    He has 30 years of experience in banking, previously CEO of Mandarin Capital.

    OK, and this is our investment thesis.

    As other VCs do, we always look at synergy when we do an investment consideration.

    So it's a big part of our mandate to do synergy with our business unit in the bank.

    In terms of the ticket size itself, we want the company to be sizable enough to be able to work with our corporate counterparts.

    So ideally we're looking at the Series A and above with a ticket.

    Million to five million.

    Geographically, it needs to be operating in Indonesia for the obvious reasons of synergy.

    And in terms of sectors, typically Fintech, Fintech-enabled, embedded finance and anything that is not burning like crazy.

    So maybe B2B businesses in this case.

    At the moment we're only running direct investment from our balance sheet, but we are in the process of developing a Co-GP fund.

    With original LP,

    where we're going to bring in external LPs.

    OK. So this is basically the overview of the mandate we want to be.

    With the startups, supporting the startups all the way through their every phase of the development stage, we have the incubations,

    You know, after that, the pre-A, Series A.

    We have the fund to invest in them, we have. We can do the follow-on and the growth stage.

    And later when they want to exit through IPOs, we can help them through our securities unit.

    OK, and a little bit about the incubation program that we just ran, and maybe this is the one that is relevant to the Korean startups.

    Who wants to expand to Indonesia?

    So basically

    We are running a few programs in the incubation, so one is a business matchmaking, so that's quite straightforward.

    We make introductions to the business units to explore our potentials, our projects with them.

    Accelerations, it's more in-depth support.

    For startups, it's a longer term process, and the final goal ideally is to be considered for investment as well.

    Venture building, we haven't really started yet.

    For the next batch, we will open next year in quarter one, we will open for overseas startups as well.

    So any of the Korean startups or Korean institutions who want to work together with us.

    And find solutions in banking.

    So maybe I just share the next slide.

    So it's not restricted to only fintechs, we want to look at all the bottlenecks that happen in the corporate sites as well.

    So it can be from HR, accounting service.

    Including our customers, which is the retail business, the merchants that we have.

    So any angles?

    I think it's possible to be explored with us. So we are very open for this.

    OK. That's about my presentation. Thank you.

    Thank you for sharing your invaluable words.

    And we look forward to some collaboration and fruitful outcomes through this platform.

    Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

    Next up is Startup Island TAIWAN.

    And for that presentation today, we're joined by Allen John Ku.

    So please welcome him to the stage with a big round of applause.

    Afternoon everybody, how are you guys doing?

    My name is Allen.

    Again, thank you to the hosts and organizers, and to some of the new people we met today.

    And made new contacts.

    My name is Allen, representing Taiwan, Startup Island TAIWAN.

    Before I start this, you know, I know we were talking earlier.

    I like Everett, just kind of going really off script, I'll make it off script.

    I won't go through all the pages, but just want to give you guys an overview of Taiwan.

    Some things you might not know, some famous, but some innovations.

    What we'd like to highlight is innovation of Taiwan.

    So some of these you probably mentioned, but there is AI, and YouTube and Twitch.

    It impacts the world.

    But these are some of the founders within that.

    But the next are also some of the other founders.

    That's a little bit older: Trend Micro, Yahoo, but most recently AMD.

    Those two,

    AMD and Nvidia have most recently opened up new AI chip fabrications in the south of Taiwan,

    Which will impact global production for TSMC.

    More money?

    So if you have your stocks in TSMC, you'll make more money off that recently.

    Going to next innovation?

    I won't go over here much.

    Snapshot of Taiwan.

    We're pretty much the size of Maryland, or the Netherlands, population wise, very similar to Australia.

    We only have 20 million, so we're like 1/5 of Japan, 1/5 of Vietnam, we're very small in population.

    So, but it does have impact.

    Next, probably 4 hours, four hours flight from most regional nations around Asia, so most metropolitan cities to Taipei is about a four hour flight.

    Which shows right here. Four hour flight radius.

    Some things I'd like to highlight why founders or companies like to start in Taiwan is we do have work-life balance, healthcare, but I think IP, we do have IP protection.

    That's pretty much going to be key for most founders.

    You could say IP protection is going to be what most founders and entrepreneurs look for when they base their company.

    Or nomads.

    So within that, I'd like to say pretty much work-life balance is my favorite thing about Taiwan.

    Why is Taiwan innovative?

    We're an innovative powerhouse in R&D. R&D is a major reason why Taiwan is behind that.

    Like Nike fabrics, Lululemon fabrics, fiber tech out of Taiwan is, I guess you could say, most sports fabric tech out of Taiwan. But not just that.

    I think smart materials growing out of Taiwan, all of these companies have R&D bases.

    Most recently I did mention NVIDIA and AMD in the South of Taiwan as a destination for innovation.

    Going forward, I think Taiwan where they want to make impact is biotechnology, healthcare, and also defense.

    I think defense is a natural, natural reason as we and Japan and some other countries have.

    Neighbors that we'd like to, you know, be friendly, but also have an edge.

    So I can't go more on that.

    But these are sectors the government has identified for 5+2 six core industries in the five trusted sectors.

    But some of them overlap.

    But this is where Taiwan wants to go forward with investments.

    but also with.

    I guess for youth and for putting the young people into these positions going forward.

    education and going towards these ideal countries.

    These are our Unicorns that are in Taiwan.

    The unicorns here, you could say, are broad, but I think I'd like to note that they have both hardware, software.

    But what is notable is they've gone public in three countries.

    So PerfectCorp is public on NASDAQ, Appier has went public in Japan.

    And 91APP has gone public in Taiwan.

    So, and I think a major reason, I want to say that, is because of resourcing.

    And also because when you're a Taiwan company, you don't have the advantage of free trade, you don't have the advantage of market.

    So when these companies with great technology do rebrand themselves as Japanese or American, they do have a broader market.

    But in addition, they can have free trade, which Taiwan doesn't.

    doesn't, isn't a part of any trade organizations.

    Due to diplomatic reasons,

    So I won't go for it on that one.

    But this data, provided by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, shows the growth from 2015 to 2023.

    With that, most of its inputs have been, I guess you could say, helped by National Development Fund.

    The India Fund has also invested into JAFCO, AppWorks, 500 Global, and has also invested into Headline Asia in Japan.

    So with that, it's increased the amount of startups.

    Funding within Taiwan.

    This map right here shows where the money is going and what type of startups have received most funding.

    So I guess for Taiwan, healthcare is a major point of emphasis, as the national healthcare system is a pretty, pretty good healthcare system.

    I do utilize it.

    You can get an appointment within the same day.

    But because it's unified, POC opportunities are pretty wide open for Taiwan healthcare companies.

    So in the last three years, we've had a cooperation with Berkeley.

    School of Public Health at University of California Health System, which in turn sent about 5 companies to a Mayo healthcare accelerator in Phoenix, AZ.

    AZ, and also in Wisconsin, but in addition Minnesota.

    With that, three of those companies out of Mayo Healthcare out of the five have received funding and have gone on to have more opportunities throughout the US through commercial activities.

    Next would probably be biotech and then energy. Energy is because mostly

    As Tesla in the beginning of their phase was.

    Mostly Taiwanese manufactured until they went to China, but with that, EV-related components but also stations are highly manufactured in Taiwan.

    These are mostly the listed companies in Taiwan and listed companies overseas. Like I said Japan, US but also recently Toronto with Just Kitchen.

    And mentioned earlier with NDF, they've invested in the Draper 500 but also through JAFCO Headline Asia with the overseas startups.

    Korea's Coupang, along with Carousell and Lalamove out of Hong Kong, have all been in Taiwan most recently.

    How are the support structures within Taiwan?

    Taiwan does have an ecosystem.

    Most everything is based on the West Coast, because Taiwan's a mountainous region.

    But within that, there are about a total of about 95 innovation bases. These innovation bases include makerspaces, coworking spaces, and also lab spaces.

    But within that, they're located throughout the middle of the country, North and South.

    Supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Science and Technology, and National Development Council.

    And so we'll go there.

    Taiwan does have a lot of accelerators, and it shows growth from 2007 all the way to 2024 of opening.

    So total right now there's roughly around 80 plus accelerators there, local to international ones and also different fields.

    Now I guess a lot of countries do try to support companies coming in and subsidies.

    And also visas, which Taiwan does.

    Also, we have an entrepreneur visa and a gold card visa, along with subsidies.

    I won't go too deep.

    And if I ask questions, I can... you're welcome to ask me.

    Taiwan's pretty active.

    I think Japan is one of our major focuses, and partly because of Japan.

    We've hosted about 3 summits within Tokyo, working with the Tokyo government, along with JETRO.

    With that, we've pretty much incubated about 6 startups to be locally based to work with the manufacturers there.

    I could say Japan is mainly because of the...

    I guess prior Taiwan's manufacturing base came from Japan, and from Taiwan, that's why China has a manufacturing base.

    So a lot of the manufacturing base and precision manufacturing for Taiwan does come from Japan's presence in the 50s and 60s when they started opening their factories in Taiwan.

    Subsidies and grants, those come from all different avenues, including National Development Fund, but also Small and Medium Enterprise Administration.

    There are loans and different SME awards for Taiwan,

    I guess the loans are available for overseas startups, so if you're a startup located anywhere around the world.

    As long as you have a 20,000 U.S. dollar expenditure, you can get that REAIMbursed back to you.

    So our organization, supported by the National Development Council, is a cross-ministry organization.

    We do receive funding from the National Development Council to host activities outside of Taiwan.

    With that, we've created partnerships and engagements from around the region.

    Both within Asia and North America, along with Middle East and Europe.

    But I think our most important partners are around in this room.

    But also around the world.

    Hosted many things overseas.

    I'm really glad to meet a lot of people here.

    Here's some of our roadmaps in the past.

    But going forward you can see.

    And, most recently, Japan from 2024 onwards.

    Innovation Summit Southeast Asia. We do host many things around the region, so this is a quick roadmap.

    And USA, I did mention SCES, but also BIO Boston and BIO San Diego.

    And Europe, Europe is pretty much left.

    Web Summit Lisbon, VivaTech and then going to Vilnius in Lithuania and Slush.

    Thank you very much everybody.

    I won't take too much time.

    I appreciate your time guys. Thank you.

    Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights.

    Thank you, and now it's time to meet the company named InnoLab Asia.

    For that, we'd like to welcome our presenter, Huynh Cong Thang to the stage.

    Please welcome him with a big round of applause.

    Good afternoon, everyone.

    Well, normally I'm supposed to share something related to Vietnam, not really my company, but as requested by the organizer, I'll do a bit.

    So I set up InnoLab Asia from 2016.

    And since then we do many activities, so I would love to share this one first.

    Umm, yeah, so where are we?

    Where are InnoLab Asia in the Vietnam startup ecosystem?

    So we are the innovation catalyst.

    So which means that on one side, we accelerate startups, we scale them up.

    But on another side, we help the big corporates to build the culture that works with startups and help them to scale with the right startup to partner with.

    So that's why we want to make sure that the startup can partner with the corporate and have a long-term relationship.

    And we are lucky enough that we advise the government in terms of how to support the startups and how to support and encourage the corporates to support the startups.

    And partner with them in the ecosystem.

    Because when we talk about innovation, a lot of people are going to think, 'OK, we talk between the investor and the startup, that's it.'

    But the corporate, the CVCs themselves, they have the market, they have the finance, they have resources.

    So it's really interesting if we can get them with us.

    So for the startup accelerator, we build a group of companies that support the startup on their journey.

    So we have little change.

    The organizations that partner with more than 40 universities.

    Across Vietnam and other countries,

    So we have the entrepreneurship program, we help the university to run the incubation program inside the university.

    So we make sure that if the students want to start up, they have the right environment and the right program to jump in.

    And if they fail it's fine because the discovery stays with us.

    But after a few years, they graduate from the university.

    They get a job, they have experience, they have a bit of finance and network, so they want to start up again.

    So then we help them to validate their idea and the market to make sure that they have the right model to do it.

    And from there, we can invest in them.

    Our ticket size is more from 10K to 50K.

    And then if they scale up, we have the law firms to support them, we have the tech companies to help them with how they can allocate.

    The resources to the tech team.

    So then from there they can do it.

    So I get back to the...

    So this is our ecosystem to support the startup.

    So we have strong partners with universities, we have strong partners with the government and we see accelerators in town.

    We have around 500 mentors in our network to make sure that if the startups need support, we are there to support them.

    And because we consult with corporates, so they are also our clients.

    It's easy for us to get them involved and support and partner with the startups.

    So, for example in our life, you see we...

    We work with the corporates side, which means that we provide consulting services in terms of innovation, capacity, training.

    So we have a small team in Brussels, Belgium, to do the EU advisory and acceleration program for the corporate.

    If anyone needs that.

    Like when they want to expand to Vietnam market, we have the market expansion program for them.

    But for the big company, when they penetrate the Vietnam market, it takes them, like, from six months to two years in terms of discovery.

    How to make the feasibility research, how to find a key partner to understand the Vietnamese market.

    And from there they build a business model for Vietnam.

    So we can support from startups to SMEs to the big corporates.

    And we have acquired a big tech team in Vietnam, where we build a lot of products for our partners.

    And we also host events and workshops, because for us, we believe that events and workshops are the platform to connect and showcase people.

    What we are doing and connect our partners together. So that's why every year we have

    I'll share about it later.

    So that's why every year we have... so this is just the event that happened a few weeks ago.

    So every year in early November we have this kind of event.

    And next year it's going to be 5th and 6th November, so we welcome partners from around 20 countries to join us.

    We have partners from US here. We have partners from...

    From the government corporate, so from the government we mostly work with the government from the region.

    So recently, we are the authorized partner from AMMAN's Free Zone Authority to help companies from Asia to set up their business in UAE.

    And besides that, you see, these are our partners that we work with to make sure that we can support the startups.

    Most of the

    Ecosystem builder.

    They forgot the association, but behind us, we have connected with a lot of associations.

    And you know, like each association, they have a few hundred businesses or a few thousand businesses.

    And if you combine this, the number can reach to 250,000 businesses and that's a lot.

    And with this number it's easy for us to.

    Let's say we target any sector or any business that needs support from another country.

    And if you're from agriculture, it's easy for us to connect you with those who are in the association with agriculture,

    And from there it's easy for us to help you. And it's not just about our network, but it's about our association.

    Networks that make us strong.

    Well, I don't have this slide of Vietnam, but I'd love to use this one to share with you.

    So the big cities in Vietnam are in the north, Hanoi, and in the south, Ho Chi Minh City.

    So we have around 100 million people.

    And the job for our government is how we can connect between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in a fast way.

    So in Vietnam, every 30 minutes, you're going to see a flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi every 30 minutes.

    And which makes that domestic flight route the second busiest flight route in the world.

    We are the second in the world, really.

    So that's why, you know, like it took the Vietnamese government the first 10 years to reach 1,000.

    Now it's high time for Vietnam.

    And by 2025, hopefully, we can triple that number.

    And you can see, if you are a business that looks at Vietnam.

    If we can reduce the logistics cost for the North and South Highway, it can be really attractive in the region.

    And

    This is the story that I want to share about.

    So we have around 44 seaports.

    2-3 years ago, a friend of mine

    invested actually to acquire one seaport,

    And he thought that it would take him at least three years to get the investment back, but actually he could break even in 18 months.

    So that's how busy and potential the Vietnam market is.

    And so this is more on the showcase that we are doing for the incubation program that we work with corporates like Sanofi.

    I want to share. This is an interesting program that if you are a university or if you are an incubator, I would love to talk to you.

    Because in the last eight years we bring young talent, young entrepreneurs from Vietnam.

    To other countries.

    And we view them from a three-month program, six-month program, and then we have one week that we send them abroad to learn from other entrepreneurs and big scale.

    If there is any chance that we can work with your country here in Korea, we would love to talk more about that.

    And this is what we run for, universities. This is what we do for the government.

    Uh yeah, I made some recently.

    Uh, we... So there's one thing I think, um, I would love to share, is that if you go to Vietnam, depending on your need, we can tailor your experience.

    Because when you come to one event, you think that well, you're going to meet certain people, but...

    If you take our event as a platform, based on your needs, we can tailor 6 days of your stay in Vietnam.

    Going to be totally different between Korea, Japan, even Taiwan, so each of you is going to see different partners based on your needs.

    And we hope that with this one is from WA and this one from Malaysia.

    So the rest is just our credentials.

    So if you have any questions, I'll be here to talk and connect. So thank you.

    Thank you very much for that fruitful presentation.

    And ladies and gentlemen,

    At this afternoon session, we will have 8 presentations, and so far we had four of them.

    So now we will take a short break and resume with the four more presentations from 2:00 PM.

    So please enjoy this short break.

    We do have some coffee in the lobby so please enjoy it and we kindly ask you to please remain in this room and continue.

    with our presentations. Thank you.

    Let me give you a quick reminder.

    We have eight pitches lined up for this afternoon, and we're here to hear four of them with you

    We're going to take a quick break, and then we'll join you at 2:00 for the remaining four pitches.

    Refreshments and coffee are available in your lobby.

    Please enjoy them for a few minutes, and then come inside and stay with us until the end, and we'll see you soon.

    Everyone, may I have your attention, please.

    We will soon commence four more pitchings here at FosterBridge Session Stage.

    So once again, ladies and gentlemen, please enter the hall.

    Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have four companies pitching here in just a moment.

    So if you're in the lobby, please come inside, and if you're standing, please take a seat.

    Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.

    We will commence the presentation here at the stage momentarily.

    Thank you.

    Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we'll get started in just a moment.

    So if you could help us get in, and I'm going to ask you again to please take your seats.

    Station Zero Main, Washington.

    Means the pitching really?

    On the stage, we have four more presentations to deliver to our audience.

    So now enter the hall and we ask you to please be seated.

    Thank you.

    Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the FosterBridge 2024.

    We will now begin the second half of the British session.

    So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our presenter once they come up to the stage.

    And today, we are joined by Mr. Matthieu Kang Holding from GM to deliver his presentation.

    Please welcome him.

    Yeah, hello.

    There, thank you and yourself.

    So my name is Matthieu, I was born in South Korea.

    My mom's Korean, is here.

    Actually, I went to Seoul where we came from, so I...

    My dad was an entrepreneur in Korea, he was health-oriented with Choco Pie.

    Now I find myself in the Middle East these days, trying to connect the Middle East and South Korea.

    So I'm here to talk about the GM community, but also early capital.

    OK.

    How can we get an exit?

    Uh, perfect.

    My apologies there.

    So right now, we're a classic deep tech fund looking at climate, health and AI, but looking at how we can accelerate.

    go to market within the Middle East as well as South Korea and Asia.

    We look to be a platform-enabled, data-driven, so we can help these companies get to the Series A round.

    and we're very excited about what we can do in South Korea.

    We want to be full stack, so we envision ourselves in the future.

    and the rest ahead.

    So we're looking at doing early stage kind of accelerator models, a fund of funds, as well as secondary.

    The reason we're doing follow-on and like a fund that does seeds to Series A in North America, Europe and Asia.

    It's just because that's where we fit.

    The talent is there.

    For deep tech, it's much more difficult to do that in the Middle East.

    So I think, you know, I just gave a talk at ASEAN.

    In Seoul, there's Yeongsan area as well.

    Just talking about the climate trends in Europe.

    But I think what we see here is, you know, name of the game, quality always wins.

    What we're seeing now is it's getting harder to get to Series B & C and raise follow-on funding.

    But I think what you see as well is there is a lot of capital available.

    The dry powder is there.

    US is quite indicative of the global markets.

    But I think if you have the right metrics and the higher barrier to entry.

    You can get to the Series B & C.

    B&C and it's important to find investors who have certain communities that you can get to Series A&B and beyond.

    DPI is a huge problem for many funds.

    So if we find in Asia there's a lack of follow-on capital, no more Tiger Global, SoftBank coming into the region.

    So you had them coming in 2021 and called this kind of tourist investing.

    So a lot of Asian companies are not able to get to the IPO and generate these massive early returns.

    So a lot of LPs in the region are quite quite shy of investing in ventures in Asia.

    So we're trying to see how we can address this by accelerating.

    Go to market strategies in the Middle East, for example.

    We want to be quite data-driven, too.

    We're looking for funds that are about sub $150 million, the data shows that.

    Three to 5X returns are hard to achieve above a 250 million threshold.

    I think 150 million is a kind of optimal amount with 30-40 portfolio companies.

    So here's a list of funds we're actually looking at.

    We're trying to bring Chameleon into the fund. We're able to see how we can be data-driven, employing ML tools to source better deals.

    We're also looking at Sermon Capital to be quite agnostic in terms of what we're allocating to.

    But see how we can complement our thesis.

    So we want to be one of the first data-driven investors in the region.

    We can do a full stack: AI engine search, deal flow, market analytics, market scans.

    I think that puts us, quite gives us a strong edge in the region, too.

    And on deal flow, and this is where we source.

    The GM Investor Club is something I founded in the pandemic. And these are our friends of different kind of brand names that we know.

    And that, that's it.

    I'm happy to talk about Ella separately, but the focus is GM. So, so GM.

    We're trying to be the world's largest LP/GP community, mostly focusing on the Middle East and Asia.

    So places like the Far East, Japan, Korea, but also Hong Kong. Hong Kong has I think 2,000 family offices and 14,000 high net worths, so it's quite concentrated.

    Outside of the US, markets are mostly consistently not mature.

    What we found back when I was a founder was that it was really hard to.

    find investors.

    And it, it was.

    It was quite risk-averse.

    In Europe especially, many investors would look at the same deals, but they'll share information or due diligence.

    So one of my co-founders actually Hassan Shukor.

    He is now the founder of 'Allow AI Next'.

    Rebuilding sales with the AI-enabled workflows, went on to raise $50 million.

    But when we were starting out, we found it really difficult to find VCs. There was like a herd mentality.

    It was a lot easier to find the right people who are a fit for your brand as well.

    And so, yeah, America kind of gets the game.

    I think other parts of the world are slightly learning about the venture game as well.

    It's very relationship driven.

    What we did in the pandemic was we created.

    You know, we're doing Zoom calls and we're doing WhatsApp groups, which was no one was really doing at the time, and it was just about bringing good people together.

    Who had shared cultural values and not just shared deal flow.

    But we just troubleshoot problems like, you know, how do you set up a fund?

    talent issues.

    Backend and frontend issues at the front.

    So as a result, like across our portfolio companies, we get invited to things like the Earthshot Prize, JETRO, whatever companies have.

    GEO and Abu Dhabi.

    We've got some funding from the CSR front of Al Mazraa, and so it's truly global.

    We're not just in the US, but we want to focus on the markets where no one's present.

    So places like Malaysia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia where it's very fragmented, but there's a huge push towards.

    Building venture ecosystems.

    ecosystem. So we want to help.

    catalyze this, but also introduce them to strong players in key markets, whether it be Silicon Valley or Europe,

    and even Korea.

    So we have different subgroups. We started with Europe, and then we slowly expanded upon requests.

    This is slightly outdated, but we're now going to go through Central Asia, India, and then we're now building a group called Orchard, which is about family offices.

    And then the LP group called ALPS, which stands for Alternative Limited Partnership Society.

    This is going to be rivalling ILPA, which is a part of Super Returns.

    Their focus is on private equity.

    We're doing this for venture and then hopefully move into that part of the ecosystem.

    So we're moving from what's been quite...

    Simple white hats?

    Because everyone uses WhatsApp, because you know you have your family there, your friends, so we just started there.

    Very simple.

    But we've now had pressure to move into a platform, so we're using Circle.

    We're going to have some proprietary workflows on it, we're going to focus on events and how we can connect global tech events.

    Because my co-founder did not want another tech event. And then we got a jobs board and then we're going to connect the LP side.

    So whether it's family offices or more institutional LPs like KTCU and MPs and.

    In Korea.

    So our members are global.

    Like, I started out in Europe, obviously, but as we started doing investments in LATAM and Africa, we started bringing some VCs.

    We knew there were good co-investors.

    Obviously because my heritage in South Korea and I've been in Japan for a few business trips.

    We started expanding to those regions and now with Malaysia and Indonesia, we're bringing in the sovereign wealth funds there and VCs.

    I think this gives us quite good access to...

    to companies,

    but also learn objectives because we can see what the problems are in different geographies.

    Malaysia, I think, has issues around exits and DPI, and they want to have exposure to FDI (foreign direct investment).

    So we're here to help assist with that.

    So here's some of the members which, you know, they're not only brand names, but we also cover the smaller names.

    We have to be kind of full stack across the entire value chain.

    We've had some great founders actually want to speak, including Adam Neumann, Talal Hassan, whoever.

    The first investor in Oman, a good friend of mine in Hong Kong, went to school with Alan Chang.

    Who's Alan Chang?

    Who's the founder?

    A co-founder of Revolut.

    And so we've had all these people.

    I've been an angel investor in Klarna Pay, too,

    PayPal. So we want to bring these founders from great brand names to the global platform so we can have them talk in Korea hopefully next year.

    So we also have access to deals, which is not really our focus at the moment, but.

    I think it complements our LP community.

    And, of course, we want to work closely with government.

    So in the Middle East, places like Invest Qatar.

    But I've alluded to Indonesia, the Indonesian Investment Authority, ProChile, and in LATAM, and Invest in Finland or Business Finland.

    I think we truly want to be like the go-to global VC community.

    So as a result, now we're just expanding beyond what we've had, with quite light-touch communication.

    We're going to bring concierge services.

    We want to have more assistance on the talent and the investment side in BD and we're partnering up with Humble AI now to bring in.

    For emerging managers like AI capabilities, because many emerging managers can't afford to do this.

    So I think that will put us in good stead and build good culture for us.

    We're also doing a lot of VC dinners and breakfasts in London, we do these Korean barbecues in Kings Cross.

    And we're seeing international trade missions, so we hope you do Startup LEAP in Saudi.

    We're going to do things in Malaysia too, with MDEC and KWAP. Singapore as well.

    We were with Temasek, so we're looking to see how we can assist them with expansion to South Korea, Japan, the UK, Middle East as well.

    So I think what's important is having a strong culture in the community.

    You can see that we've already been in, we were in with Riyada, actually in Dubai.

    And we're helping AstroLabs with some judging as well.

    We do invest domestically and internationally, and we also want to bring international founders and see how we can assist the companies that we all invest in.

    Like I said, we're using Humble AI now to bring kind of trained LLMs to our community of trusted investors.

    We're using term sheets, pitch decks, podcasts so that we can share this with other investors.

    Not beyond their community.

    So we really want to bring this kind of data-driven VC to the rest of the world, especially emerging managers and democratize AI.

    So that's it in a nutshell.

    Thank you for the time to talk to you and I hope you can reach out to me at my email after the conference.

    So thank you for your time.

    Thank you Matthieu Kang for your presentation.

    for sparing your valuable time to join us and preparing your meaningful presentation.

    The next company is Lock In Venture Labs.

    And today, we will be welcoming James Park to the stage to deliver his presentation.

    Let us welcome him to the stage with a big round of applause.

    Hi everyone, my name is James and I've met quite a lot of you by this point.

    I'm from Dubai and I operate a company called Lock In Venture Labs.

    We work with startups to deliver better GTM motions and governments to deliver better startup programs.

    So our mission is to actually help startups to build scalable revenue systems.

    And the reason why we stumbled across this motion was because in the process of going global, going to different markets, we realized that.

    You know, there isn't actually a set motion that startups are following and which they actually should be, very much so in their earliest stages.

    So the way we do this, we wanted to take a scientific approach to our global market when we work with startups.

    And obviously it starts with the discovery, it's discovering your customers and discovering your market.

    And really seeing why the need is there for you to be in certain markets.

    So we are not going to go through all the activities that we actually perform for our clients.

    But I think in many times.

    Especially in the case of Korean startups or Asian startups going global.

    You don't actually think about why you should be there or why you should be in the US.

    Why should I be in Southeast Asia, for example?

    And that's why I think discovery is the piece that was lacking the most when we spoke to our clients.

    Then afterwards, once you start discovering which markets make sense, this naturally leads to a customer understanding process where you are talking with customers.

    And I think what's critical here is that.

    When you speak to users, if they are different from customers.

    Customers are actually paying for your stuff, like if they pay for your stuff, they know that it's valuable, which is why they're paying you money.

    But if you're talking to users, beta users, free users, they actually don't see your value.

    Free users see your product or service as valuable, meaning that they're just free to give whatever feedback that they want.

    Then, so once you're speaking to your paid users and you're speaking to customers, you now start understanding, especially.

    In case of, you know, B2B SaaS companies or B2G companies, you now begin to understand who exactly you should be speaking to.

    So what do you mean by that?

    If, for example, there is a CRM solution, you might be dealing with enterprise, you might be dealing with SMEs, or you might be dealing with super early stage founders.

    But ultimately what they want to do is actually they want to create a knowledge base.

    But as the CRM founder, do you want to be understanding who exactly in this organization that you're talking to?

    I.e. is it the founder? Is it the director of IT?

    Is it the sales leader?

    And.

    Understanding this motion and speaking to who actually makes decisions is critical in the experimentation process.

    And obviously, I should go through the experimentation.

    You then start iterating, you understand who you want to be speaking to, and then you start building out better solutions.

    To go to market.

    And this is actually at the core of what we do with clients.

    So whether they are startups or government, we focus on what they really want to achieve and what they want.

    what they want.

    Think what they want to achieve, but we have these deep conversations.

    Where the discovery process is generally lengthier.

    So we actually drop probably 60% of our inbound leads.

    Because we eventually come to the realization that they either don't need us, or we just provide them with direction on where to go.

    And in the case where they have resources already, we just say, you know what, it's a good chat, we probably shouldn't work together.

    So we

    Usually engage with startups on a six-month engagement.

    Where we run through all of this discovery funnel building process.

    And the reason why we differ from other consultancies is that we like to actually deliver and execute on the strategies that we say are going to work.

    And if it doesn't work, we like to iterate ourselves and with our clients.

    So what this means for a startup is that when startups are coming to whether it's the Middle East or Korea.

    We not only deliver a strategy, but we also go to the region, we do the market discovery, we work with the customers and partners.

    to actually kick off the GTM motion in the markets that we're in.

    So we like to work with scale-ups.

    And as to everyone, because they have generally more money.

    But aside from money, I think you need to be understanding what being a scale-up means before you choose to.

    You know, go with clients where, OK, I figured out one GTM and GTMs.

    Incredibly local.

    So if your product works in Korea, it doesn't mean it's going to work in Japan, doesn't mean it's going to work in the US.

    So that's why we at least want to be working with...

    Companies that have figured out for-

    A market, only their product-market fit.

    We build GTM motions with these companies, understanding their products, and we drive, we actually drive the revenues and partnerships.

    So I think I'd like to talk a little bit about Dubai, and I've lived there for about two years now.

    I was initially brought to Dubai and worked for a free zone called Dubai International Financial Centre.

    And I built out the startup platform called Ignite, which brought together startups, investors, mentors and different resources.

    So in the process, I was able to actually meet a lot of foreign entrepreneurs in Dubai.

    And of which there are plenty.

    And everyone started emphasizing the importance of commitment to the market.

    And obviously, this is like everybody knows that, you know, whether it's Saudi or countries in the Middle East, all say, you know what.

    You have to be committed to the region.

    But I'm, I'm a little bit taken aback when they tell me this, that this is the problem. I don't think it's the problem.

    I think all countries actually say that, so as a foreign entrepreneur,

    If you want to come to Korea, you want to be here and be committed to the region, but it's just that.

    Saudi, Dubai, the UAE, Qatar.

    They say that you have to be committed out loud and upfront, and that's why commitment is important.

    But it's actually not a difficulty per se, it's just that it's a perceived difficulty.

    Where you have to pick up yourself, move your family to the region and actually be committed to live there and work there.

    High wages and competition for talent is another difficulty that foreign founders face.

    And that's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it.

    That's it. The competition for talent is actually very fierce.

    That's it. The competition for talent is actually very fierce in Dubai, where it's hard to hire because people, I don't think people understand what Dubai's like, because they've never been there.

    It's to me the...

    Understanding, or the first impression that I got from Dubai is that it's out in the Middle East.

    I'm not entirely sure, you know, if...

    I was going to be in the region for a while.

    So, and generally, people from elsewhere think, have certain first impressions about the Middle East, which can be positive or negative.

    But that's kind of what drives the difficulty in hiring for talent.

    Because now you have to start contacting executives, contacting, you know, experienced people.

    And not only offer them higher wages, but also persuade them to move their family to the region.

    There's also incredibly high competition when it comes to certain industries.

    Education fintech has a lot of investments coming from the Middle East, and there seems to be an inordinate amount of fintechs focused on the region as well.

    And.

    Dubai is also a very event-heavy community, so that's a very liveable city.

    We run multiple events, especially during the winter time and founders often tell us that, you know.

    We've been to Dubai multiple times, we've gone to all of the events, but we're not entirely sure if all the events were actually useful.

    And lastly, of course, as in any market, there are regulatory challenges that we help actually to overcome.

    So, ultimately, the reason why I'm speaking about the implications and difficulties is that we like to work with startups to actually start navigating through these challenges.

    So help them find the right talent, commit to the region.

    And in a way that is resource friendly and also choose the right partners.

    So sift through the noise and navigate regulatory challenges.

    I think David also mentioned Twelve Labs, and we also work with them to really help navigate startups and governments to get to communities.

    Set up corporations. And because we've been in the region for a while, we have the right connections to make them.

    So I think ultimately...

    There's a couple things more about the Middle East I want to also point out and why it's an interesting market so.

    As I mentioned, the commitment is important.

    Commitment is not only that you're going there to live there, but it's actually...

    Dubai puts a very high value on face-to-face engagement.

    Which actually brings me to an interesting point.

    So when I was in Canada, originally from Canada, and I was contacting people on LinkedIn and I'd say, 'Hey, I do this and this.'

    Can we meet up for coffee?

    I think usually my hit rates are probably less than 10% when it comes to, you know, cold outreach.

    But Dubai is different.

    When I do the same thing in Dubai, I think I probably meet up for coffee 3-4 times out of 10.

    Because it's, it's a big place, but it's also a small place.

    Same time.

    And everyone's really open to meeting up with each other, and that's what underscores the importance of face-to-face engagement.

    So if you actually wanted to say, if I want to sit down with Omar, then Omar, let's meet up, talk about events in Dubai.

    And if I reach out to him on LinkedIn, I think the chances of me getting to certain people...

    Are much, much higher and actually having meaningful conversations.

    There's generally across the Middle East, there is a large proportion of workforce that's low wages.

    And these low wages often lead to difficulties in building out the junior level of talent then.

    Of course, and as in all markets, you need a very clear value proposition that stands out.

    For foreign startups and foreign service providers.

    So maybe if we are heading to...

    If a startup is headed to Dubai, it's important to think from Dubai's perspective, where you're actually one of many, many startups that want to be there.

    So it's very important to set up a clear value proposition, and also in delivering this value proposition, work with local partners to deliver that.

    And ultimately I want to really underscore.

    Patience then with.

    Certain startups that may not have the luxury of being patient, it's common that they will fly into a market. They would want quick results.

    And I don't think any markets actually deliver quick results.

    I think you have to be committed, you have to stay in the region and you have to make sure that you start delivering value to customers in the region.

    To really be patient and have value.

    We, our team actually has about 30 years of combined experience. We've advised about 400 clients.

    We're not only working to buy, but we also work in different countries like Korea, and we don't like to work with fundraiser or fundraising clients.

    But we did, we do help raise funds, and across our partner network, we help deliver value.

    So across countries and partners.

    Worldwide network.

    We've delivered Leap by DIFC as well.

    That was my previous job, but I also served as the managing director of Techstars Korea and one of the notable portfolio companies.

    From that, it's Twelve Labs, which you saw yesterday morning.

    We've delivered a lot of work for Fortune 500 matchmaking services.

    So if startups come to us, we help find the right partners and they might be as large as the Fortune 500.

    We also worked a bit with the Korean government entities and in delivering different kinds of programs.

    So I know that a lot of you in the audience actually have a lot of experience with government programs.

    We generally, we generally do a good job, I think.

    Government programs, most of them have.

    KPIs that are different versus the private sector-run programs or when startups come to a government program.

    They're kind of swift under their... swift under...

    The need of meeting the KPIs by the government, so we help deliver these programs together with the government and deliver value to the startups.

    startups.

    We have a number of advisors. Collins, one of them, she saw yesterday morning.

    And we like to, yeah,

    We'd love to see where we can collaborate.

    If you have any, if you have any opportunities to come to Dubai, please do and we'll be around.

    Let's work together.

    Thank you, thank you very much for showing us the methodologies for new market development and implementations in the Middle East area.

    Thank you.

    And next, we do have two more presentations to go.

    Next presentation is prepared by Scottish Business Network,

    And for the presentation, we'd like to welcome Russell Dalgleish to the stage for delivering his presentation.

    Let's welcome him to the stage with a warm round of applause.

    Good afternoon, everyone.

    What an amazing two days we've had.

    I can't believe the interesting people that I've met and the presentations that I've seen, that I've learned so much from.

    And it's... it's quite daunting for me now to stand up here and to try to offer you something you haven't already heard.

    But that's my challenge and I'm willing to accept that.

    So.

    Today I'm going to talk a little bit about community.

    What we've seen over these two days is an international community.

    Gathered in these rooms and other rooms in this venue to share experience and to share hope, for how we can support these startups and scale-up companies.

    We can support them to access capital.

    To secure new partnerships and hopefully to secure clients.

    And what's been important is the global nature of this event.

    We've seen people from across the globe coming together to share the similarities of challenges that we face and to see where we can learn from each other.

    And we've done all this in an environment here in Seoul where we've also met some of the most exciting startups that I've come across recently this year.

    People working across different sectors, developing solutions here in the Korean home market, which are now ready to go international.

    And that's what I do.

    I help companies go international through linking them with an international community, and everyone here does that.

    And I want to talk about how we're going to do that and how we're going to do that together.

    The number one thing?

    Is to be clear about your message, what is your vision and how are you trying to deliver on that?

    With the goal being, how can we help?

    So when I met everyone today, what I've asked is, How can I help you?

    And people have said we're trying to access funding.

    That then allows me to start to understand more about their proposition.

    About their vision and who I can connect them with.

    Because our world is about connections, it's about linking someone with someone else with the goal that together they can achieve something they couldn't achieve alone.

    And we do that at this conference.

    With access to capital, we have companies that wish to grow, but they need funds.

    They need the funds to energize their business.

    And you in this room have the capital to assist them.

    And now that capital is available globally.

    I also want to talk a little bit about brands.

    We as individuals are today all brands.

    We use products and platforms like LinkedIn to identify and share who we are.

    But what we need to do is to think like a brand, so we need to talk about the problems we solve.

    What that will do is it will attract more people to you, it will encourage more to wish to partner with you, and it will trigger more of these conversations.

    And the conversations develop into opportunity, which creates value.

    But it's your responsibility to talk about who you are and what you do.

    But in a clear, precise way, so that we can understand how to help you.

    It's amazing.

    In Korea, I see the most exceptionally brilliant presentations, the use of graphics, the use of narrative.

    The use of imagery to help me to understand.

    The product or the service?

    But what I really want to understand is, how can I help?

    What can I do that will help you?

    And this is why we have to think like a brand when we explain this to others.

    So use that platform like LinkedIn.

    Talk about the fact you've been here today.

    What have you learned?

    How has your life been changed?

    How can you help others?

    So, as I said, we are all part of a community.

    I've met people from 17 different nations today alone, but you are now part of my community.

    We have a shared interest in helping others succeed.

    A shared interest in helping others succeed.

    We do that through providing access to our networks, to our capital, to our experience.

    But this is actually what we do. We help, and we help as a tribe.

    No, it's been great to see a WhatsApp group develop at this conference,

    Where people can start sharing, start to get to know each other, and we can start to understand how we can collaborate.

    What opportunities we can work on together, because the technology allows us all to do that.

    I've seen this firsthand.

    Eight years ago, I gathered in a room with 10 people who wished to work together to support my nation of Scotland.

    Today, that is 20,000 people across 72 different countries,

    It is senior executives, it is investors, it is founders, and it is people who work together to help each other.

    And we have created that tribe here.

    No, we've all got business cards from each other.

    But having the business card does not ignite anything, what does is taking action.

    So I would ask you all to follow up on those connections you've made and see how you can help those individuals.

    That's certainly what I'll be doing.

    When we look at these tools such as LinkedIn, are you using it optimally to explain these problems?

    And solutions that you solve.

    So the people at this conference, particularly the speakers, were all photographed on the first day on the stage,

    with the Minister for Small Business being 6 foot five. I could stand at the back and still be visible.

    And that picture appeared in the Korean press this morning.

    Are you using that imagery, that press story, that coverage to boost your own promotion?

    Here so that you will attract more business.

    That's the world we live in today when we look at our individual brands.

    is to sweat that equity that you have.

    And it's all about being visible.

    We have to be able to see you.

    And that's why it's so exciting that the organizers of this conference were able to attract such incredibly experienced individuals from across the globe to come to Seoul.

    And they have to be commended for what they've achieved in doing this.

    No, we are all time-poor individuals.

    We all have many, many things we need to do.

    But we've given the time to come to this conference.

    Because we perceive there could be opportunity here, and I hope you found it.

    So be visible, tell people you've been here, tell people what the experience is like, and let's build on this conference for next year.

    So you're...

    You're, you're...

    You're, you're.

    You're, you're.

    You're, you're.

    You're, you're.

    You're, you're. We talked about being visible, but it's also about action.

    What actions are you going to take from being at this conference today?

    Are you going to send your pitch deck to all the investors you met?

    Are you going to follow up with a call?

    Are you going to start fleshing out that project that you discussed over karaoke last night?

    What are you going to do to actually make a difference from being together?

    Today, for me, it's very straightforward.

    You're now all part of my community.

    I think of you all now as friends. Friends because we've had a shared experience.

    The shared experience of presenting in front of what must be the biggest display screen I've ever stood in front of.

    I've never seen my head blown up to that size before.

    And also, there's a secret about business in the world today, and I'll share that secret with you.

    The best thing you can do is to ask for help.

    What you need to do is to look at the people you've met with and don't try to sell to them. Ask them for help.

    Because we've developed a certain level of trust by being together.

    So now people like, I feel indebted to you and wish to help. But unless you ask me for help...

    I don't know what to do, so how could I help?

    Perhaps you're looking for a connection in Chile?

    So I now have a contact in Chile I can introduce you to.

    Perhaps you're looking for an investor in New York?

    Perhaps you've started to wonder, are there more people with that strange accent?

    Russell has... Perhaps Scotland's a country I should visit.

    It doesn't matter, but ask for help.

    Don't be too proud.

    When I started to ask for help in my business career a long time ago, people would give up their time freely to assist me because they believed in my vision.

    And we believe in your vision.

    This is so true for startups and scale-ups.

    Help others. That's the way to get this to work.

    So what are the next steps after this conference?

    Today, what are you going to do for me?

    I'll tell you what I will do.

    So I'm going to share my experience, I'm going to write an article for the British press to talk about what I discovered in Korea.

    I'll talk about the startups I've met. I'll talk about the investors I've engaged with.

    But I'll also talk about the atmosphere we've created in these rooms, this willingness to collaborate, this desire to use capital for a positive benefit for our planet.

    The number of solutions I've seen which would fall into this green tech or climate area are superb because those are what we require.

    Feeding this innovation through the funding that we can provide is a game changer for our planet.

    But all people will only know if they hear about our experience here.

    I use LinkedIn or whatever social platform you use, share pictures from your experience, talk about what you learned.

    And I've learned not so much about Korea, because I've been here many times before. I've learned what's happening in different parts of the world.

    Now, we've just seen a presentation talking about Dubai in the Middle East.

    I was there a few weeks ago and I can confirm.

    Everything that was told about, so many events, so easy.

    Open doors.

    A challenge to get to our result.

    But I've now got a new friend in Dubai who I can talk with to help me to move forward.

    those projects.

    And then the final words of advice I can give is this.

    If you are a startup, it's tough.

    It can feel like you're trying to change the world on your own.

    We see a lot of presentations where the companies will list their team, the people who are employees or their members of their board.

    What I want to hear about is all the exceptional people that help you or are part of your bigger community.

    Because that's what impresses investors.

    That shows the endorsement you have from more experienced individuals than yourself.

    And the way we do that is, we don't ever, ever, ever give up.

    This journey we are on is critically important.

    It really matters.

    It's not a job.

    People aren't here because this is their job, people are here because they want to find ways to better use the capital.

    We have to change the world through supporting startups and scale-ups.

    And I really want to give a heartfelt thanks to the organizers who have brought us all together.

    And thank you so much for listening to me today.

    And my ask is, get in touch.

    Thank you very much everyone.

    Thank you, thank you very much.

    Thank you for also emphasizing the meaning and also the goal of our gathering.

    Thank you very much for your valuable presentation.

    And ladies and gentlemen, before we invite our last speaker to the stage, we'd like to extend a sincere gratitude to all of you for joining us today.

    Until the very last presentation, please join me in welcoming Miss Maria Noel de la Paz.

    Magical, with a big round of applause.

    Please welcome her.

    Hola.

    HoloLens.

    hello.

    Well, as we close today's presentations, I'd like to invite you to travel to the furthest location you've seen over the past few days.

    Let's go to Latin America.

    My name is Maria Noel de la Paz and I've been part of the innovation and startup ecosystem for the past 10 years at a local level.

    I was part of the team at Startup Chile.

    The first government program in the world to support startups.

    Everywhere in the world, on a global scale,

    I worked at Seedstars and Founder Institute, and currently I'm the Acceleration Director at Magical, a venture capital firm from Chile.

    Magical is a private investment fund and accelerator that has been working with founders solving critical problems in the Latin American region since 2013.

    Our first fund called Magical One, we administered a government fund of $2,000,000.

    We invested in 35 startups, and today the valuation of this portfolio has reached 350 million.

    Here are some startups from our first portfolio.

    We have Collectia from Venezuela.

    The Monroe brothers developed an AI-based digital collection management system.

    There's also Sippity from Chile, an AI-powered robot that optimizes inventory and execution in retail.

    Delivering insights to increase sales and efficiency.

    There's a QR code there, so if you want to scan it, then you can have more information about the portfolio.

    It's a nice data room that I created with the team.

    Due to the success of our first fund, we launched Magical II, our first private fund, at the end of 2022.

    Magical II is a $5,000,000 fund. We are planning on investing in 17 startups.

    Each receiving a ticket of $125,000,

    $125,000. The second half of this fund is going to be for follow-on funds.

    Of the 17 startups, the best performers are going to be the ones receiving this.

    Follow-on.

    This is our investment thesis: we invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups with proven traction founders.

    fully dedicated to their startups and B2B SaaS models. They have to be startups.

    In Chile, or with Chile in their expansion plans.

    So if anyone here in the room is wanting to explore Chile and maybe expand their business to Latin America, we have to talk later.

    These are the startups we already invested in.

    Magical II.

    They span different countries and industries.

    And again, for more details you can scan the QR code and you can learn more about each one of them.

    Once we invest in a startup, we create a tailor-made business.

    Consulting plan. We do first a diagnosis to identify the challenges and the opportunities.

    The startups have.

    Afterwards, we create an action plan that's a six-month program that focuses specifically on product market.

    fit, on go-to-market strategy and also the business sustainability.

    In addition, we also have a wide network of benefits for the startups that we invest in.

    We have different perks also, corporate alliances also.

    A really, really great expert network to support founders on their growth journey. Here is our team.

    It's a group of passionate individuals dedicated to supporting our founders and our investors too.

    For the past eight years.

    Alongside investing and founders, I've been also studying startup ecosystems around the world.

    That brought me here last year, to South Korea and also to Japan.

    I was exploring what was happening on this side of the world.

    I call myself a hidden sociologist because I am really fascinated by how each country creates and develops its unique ecosystems.

    And throughout my research in the US, in Europe and in Asia, I am very surprised.

    How little is known about the Latin American region and its potential.

    So I would love to take this opportunity to share with you some insights.

    First, let's get straight what we talk about when we say Latin America.

    Latin America is a group of 20 countries of around 660 million people.

    From Mexico to the tip of South America in Argentina.

    In terms of GDP, it's over $5 trillion, and we are global leaders in commodities like copper in Chile and Peru.

    Soybeans in Brazil and also oil in Guyana and Venezuela.

    Maybe you didn't know that about Latin America.

    Projections of growth in the region are almost 2%,

    However, we have countries like Guyana that will experience a big growth of 34% that is thriving, while other countries like Argentina,

    I don't know if you've read the news, but they are right now struggling in a very unstable economy.

    So probably the growth is gonna be below 3%.

    Unfortunately, the region has a very young and vibrant entrepreneur population.

    The median age in the region is 31 years old.

    And as we can say, our startup ecosystem is a teenager because we've been actually evolving as an ecosystem for the past 15 years.

    These are the funding deals by region in Q3 of 2024.

    As you can see, there's a concentration of deals and funding at the top of the map in the US, Europe and Asia.

    And I think after the conversations we had today with the colleagues that have been here and they're working in different regions, we can see how focused they are in those regions. Specifically,

    I was looking at the maps and I was like, oh, just explore a little.

    More in the region into the other side.

    But it's interesting to see this.

    I don't see this as a disadvantage, but an opportunity.

    A really big opportunity to open borders and explore untapped investments for everyone.

    This is the annual VC investment in Latin America.

    I saw another slide, I think it was from Vietnam or Indonesia, which was pretty similar.

    I think like the rest of the world, Latin America was impacted by the global VC winter.

    As valuations are adjusting right now after the 2021 peak, investors have become much more selective in the region.

    And now we are prioritizing more startups that have a real clear path to profitability.

    And startups have become also much more efficient in cash preservation due to the limited follow-on financing that we have right now in the region.

    These are our top tech verticals.

    Latin America FinTech leads the region, followed by PropTech and also Logistics.

    Of the 42 active unicorns that we have in Latin America right now, almost half of them are FinTech.

    This includes maybe you've heard of Nubank, it's a digital bank from Brazil.

    There's also Rappi from Colombia.

    It's an app that offers on-demand delivery, but they also have a banking service right now and a travel service as well.

    So.

    Those are kind of the best known unicorns you might have heard of.

    So what makes Latin America unique?

    Well, I think the combination of historical inequalities, the structure of economic challenges that we have and social exclusion has created a deeply unequal landscape in Latin America.

    And that is probably not a surprise for anyone.

    Even though each country is very different culturally, if you go to Colombia for example.

    Or to Uruguay or to Bolivia.

    You will realize we are very different, besides the fact that we all speak Spanish, but we share, on a different level, most of the same problems.

    Like financial inclusion, access to services, education, health, agriculture as well.

    So this really creates a space for startups to address pressing large-scale problems.

    Latin American founders, I don't know if you've ever met one, but they are among the most resourceful.

    Passionate and resilient, you'll meet.

    They're used to tackling challenges with very limited resources, making them highly efficient and very, very determined to succeed.

    We also see this in Latin America.

    One of the specifics?

    After travelling a little bit around and seeing how other ecosystems work, I believe we are a very collaborative ecosystem.

    I truly believe what they were saying before my presentation.

    That community really makes power for us.

    Less resources?

    We work closer together to get better results.

    There's a really, really strong sense of collaboration.

    We work together as a region, we share knowledge and network to accelerate our growth as VCs as well, and accelerators and the ecosystem enablers.

    Also, this is great news for the VCs that are here.

    I've been talking to some of them for the past couple of days.

    We have lower valuations than usual valuations in other regions.

    But we have really high value, so they're pretty lower than what we see in the US or Europe.

    making Latin American startups an attractive investment with strong, strong growth potential.

    Also, the ecosystem is growing.

    I think it's a very good time.

    If you have been interested in Latin America, to just like, really dig deep, or start connecting, or start learning what's happening there.

    It's maturing, I think.

    After the winter of VC.

    VC that has really helped us and challenged us, and we are stepping up our game.

    And we are very open to connect and to keep growing together with partners from everywhere in the world.

    And finally, I think one of the most unique things about Latin America is that we are very problem-focused and we care for solutions to real problems rather than just the technology.

    So there is a market already waiting for those solutions.

    For us, when someone comes and says, 'We are an AI this' or 'We are metaverse that'... Usually in the region,

    We don't really care what technology you're using, we really care about what problem you're solving if you're using AI.

    Great if that is helping you to achieve that goal faster.

    But we are very problem focused and technology has to be something that helps, but not the product itself.

    So, yeah, so...

    With the support of global investors and a focus on real-world solutions.

    I am very, very confident that Latin America

    Founders will continue to thrive and drive.

    Meaningful change worldwide.

    It's time for us also to position ourselves and show the world the immense value and potential.

    Latin America has to offer.

    We very much look forward to continuing to learn, to collaborate, to build bridges between our regions and the rest of the world.

    And yeah, thank you very much for letting me share a bit of my exciting region.

    Thank you.

    Thank you, Miss Maria, for your valuable words.

    Thank you, please now return to your seat.

    So, ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of all the presentations for this Bridge session.

    Once again, I believe that that does.

    FosterBridge was a meaningful platform for all of you, connecting the global startup ecosystem with global venture investors, the companies, and Korean startup support organizations as well.

    And ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for staying with us until the very end.

    This brings us to the end of the bridge session, but we do have some remaining sessions for you, so please enjoy them. And we hope to meet all of you next year as well.

    Thank you very much for your attendance.

    See you next year. Thank you.

    Yes, thank you for sticking with us all the way through.

    Uh, our bridge session is wrapping up, but we still have a few more sessions to go

    We'd love for you to stick around for the rest of the sessions, and if you get a chance, stay for some networking.

    We'll see you all next year.

    Thank you so much for joining us, everyone.