We are ending the month of November with our bi-annual APAC Summit, bringing together the best that innovation has to offer!
Thank you to everyone who attended our APAC Summit November 2021 ! 🙌 We had a total of 2000+ attendees dialling in across 3 days. We would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us at this Summit. The Summit would not have been a success without your support!
Our bi-annual APAC Summit brings together the best that innovation has to offer. The 3-day event featured 10+ exciting keynote topics and panel discussions, and over 100+ startups who pitched their innovative technologies to a network of industry leaders, corporations, governments, and investors.
Day 1 Morning - Summit Kickoff + Global Innovation Alliance Expo
This year, we kicked off our summit with an all-exclusive open-innovation showcase where our key leadership team shared their thoughts on the overall innovation ecosystem, as well as new partnerships with AboitizPower, Sime Darby Plantation, Prudential plc, Kerry Group, CapitaLand and Simummuang Market, which we are excited to delve deeper into as we focus on investing in bold technology startups that will disrupt the different industries.
Moving on to our GIA Expo segment, we were honored to have Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore, Edwin Chow, kickstart this session by giving an overview of our Global Innovation Alliance program. He also shared more about how there are increasingly new opportunities and profitable growth in Southeast Asia, with greater investment interests in sectors such as E-commerce, Fintech and Healthtech.
We heard a total of 20 exciting startup pitches from our program in Manila and Jakarta, covering various focus areas such as Robotics, Healthtech, Gaming, Edutech, Fintech, Enterprise Solutions, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence.
Featured startups from GIA Manila program: Goama, Wallet Engine, SKALE, Refermany, Docuf.AI, frankie, Joy N Co, Graymatics, Learner Net, Handshakes
Featured startups from GIA Jakarta program: Crown Digital, Edufied, Frea Technology, Kinobi, Nabcore, Pand.AI, Saltmine, Sealed Network, SmartClean, Workato
Day 1 Afternoon - GK Plug and Play + CCEI
Our focus in Asia’s startup ecosystem continues to grow year by year. From setting up an office in Indonesia to kickstart the country’s vibrant ecosystem of entrepreneurship, to expanding our operations to other parts of Asia, with Korea being our newest location. We started off this segment by having a keynote session with Chris Liu, Executive Director & Partner of Deloitte, to share his perspective on Indonesian market access.
We then heard 5 exciting startup covering focus areas such as Ending Plastic Waste, Conversational Commerce, Sustainability and Big Data.
Plug and Play has also collaborated with Gyeongbuk CCEI to run the Singapore Global Overseas Acceleration & Learning Program which focuses on empowering international startups to enter the APAC markets. We invited 4 innovative startups covering focus areas including Defect Inspection Equipment, Image Inspection Device and Reduced Power Transmission Systems.
Featured startups from Gyeongbuk CCEI program: TCMS, Raytech, Eastern Gear, HICS COMPANY
Day 1 Evening - Tech Nation
Moving on to the third segment of Day 1, we held the expo for The Tech Nation International Growth Programme 2.0, a part of the UK Government's Digital Trade Network helping innovative UK tech companies access trade & investment opportunities, and forge new partnerships in exciting new markets. For the keynote session, we invited International Director of Tech Nation, Samantha Evans, to share more about her perspective on the accelerating progress of entrepreneurs, enterprises and the economy across Asia Pacific!
We then heard from 11 innovative startups covering various focus areas such as Fintech, Analytics, Healthtech and Artifical Intelligence.
Featured startups from Tech Nation program: Datactics, Pricebeam, BankiFi, Yoello, Squarebook, Dyad, Oxford Immune Algorithmics, Wolf & Badger, Heteronomics, Gemba, ChAI
Day 2 Morning - Fintech & Insurtech
On the second day of our summit, we kickstarted the session by announcing an exciting, new corporate partnership with Prudential Corporation Asia. Moving on to our fireside chat, we invited Founder and CEO of Acko General Insurance, Varun Dua, for a discussion on the topic of Scaling & Sustaining an Insurtech unicorn in APAC.
We then heard from 8 innovative Insurtech startups with whom we have been working closely, covering focus areas including Claims Automation & Fraud Management, Agent Tools & Customer Engagement, AI Underwriting and New Insurance Products.
Featured startups from Insurtech program: Claim Genius, Yoors, MoEngage, Parked, Surfly, Wesurance, Jamm, Quantexa
Moving on, we heard from our Fintech startups. The session was kicked started by a fireside chat with Kevin Lim, Director of Blockchain@Temasek, about the institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain in Southeast Asia. Next, 5 Fintech startups then took it away with their innovative pitches.
Featured startups from Fintech program: STACS, GreenArc Capital, OneHypernet, Arrow, Doconomy
Day 2 Afternoon - Facebook Business Solutions
Moving onto our afternoon session, we have Facebook's new Business Solutions Accelerator, taking a deeper dive with our Facebook startups and gaining knowledgeable insights to the latest trends and technologies. We invited HyeJin Kang, Program Manager of Facebook APAC, to share more about the Facebook Accelerator Business Solutions program and how startups are innovating at the frontier of the industry.
We then heard from 13 startups covering various focus areas such as Service Applications, Creative Applications, Customer Data Platform and Platform Integrators.
Featured startups from Facebook Business Solutions Accelerator: Convo, Featuring, GliaCloud, ShowHue, Ovatu, Quickwork, GROWTHai, Deeply Digital, ORDERLY, PrimeData, Realcore, Sensors Data, Techsun
Day 3 Morning - End Plastic Waste
In partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Plug and Play has ran multiple accelerator programs across the globe to work with the best startups tackling plastic waste. To kickstart the third day, we invited Global Director of Sustainability Practice, Matthew Claxton, to share more about our program overview and activities.
Next, we had an insightful keynote segment about the value of collaboration and connecting to startup communities around the world by Nicholas Kolesch, Vice Presidents of Projects, at the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Our panelists then took it away with their discussion on plastic waste trends and corporate innovation in Southeast Asia.
We heard a total of 11 exciting startup pitches from our End Plastic Waste program covering focus areas such as Alternative Packaging Options, Creating Value from Post-Recycled Tech and Recycling & Processing Tech.
Featured startups from End Plastic Waste: Alterpacks, Aegis Packaging, RecycleSmart, Waste Labs, Vinglabs Technologies, Rebricks Indonesia, recycleX, Ricron Panels, Ecovia, Karo Sambhav, ReCircle
Day 3 Afternoon - Smart Cities
Our Smart Cities program is the platform of success for building cities to be smarter and more resilient. We bring together the key players from all relevant industries across continents, connecting the best technology startups to corporations, governments and investors.
This segment featured a keynote session on shaping the future of Thailand 4.0 and shining the light on how Thailand is on its path to become the leader of Smart Cities development in Southeast Asia, shared by Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Deputy Secretary General of Thailand Board of Investments.
Moving on, we also heard from 14 disruptive startups from our Smart Cities program, covering various focus areas such as Energy & Sustainability, Enterprise Solutions, IoT, Health and Real Estate & Construction.
Featured startups from Smart Cities program: AC Biode, Alpha Grace Envirotech, AppMan, Bluefield Renewable Energy, Carbon House, Cubical Laboratories, Delegate, Dynamic Intelligence Asia, Growth AI, Habitap, Perx, Ricron Panels, Waveboost, Ztrus
Day 3 Evening - Food & AgTech
The final segment was kickstarted with a keynote session by Parth Patel, Vice President Marketing of Kerry Group in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, on Sustainability in Food & Beverages.
We then ended the last day of our APAC Summit with 10 exciting startup pitches from our Food & AgTech program. From Supply Chain and Waste-to-Value, to Smart Farming and Retail Technology.
Featured startups from Food & AgTech program: MimosaTEK, AgrIOT, Sensix, EDEN Agritech, Optiwiser A.I. Solutions, Voltstone, Greencovery, Maeko, Dayta AI, Vispera
With that, we close the 6th edition of our bi-annual APAC Summit. We would like to thank all our featured speakers, corporate partners, investors, and the startups who joined us at this summit as we came together virtually and physically to innovate together.
A huge thank you to all of our featured speakers for providing their insights in the various industries! 🎉
Edwin Chow, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore
Natalie Black, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific, UKDIT
Rebecca Hall, Commissioner for Victoria, South East Asia, VGTI Australia
Rafaelita Aldaba, Undersecretary for Competitiveness & Innovation, DTI Philippines
Karishma Vaswani, Asia Business Correspondent, BBC News
Chris Liu, Exec Director Indonesia, Deloitte
Samantha Evans, Head of International, Tech Nation
Varun Dua, Founder and CEO, Acko
Kayvon Deldar, Director, Fintech, Insurtech and Health, Plug and Play APAC
Kevin Lim, Director of Blockchain, Temasak
Kent Lin, Corporate Partnerships Manager, Fintech, Insurtech and Health, Plug and Play APAC
Kang HyeJin, Startup Program Manager, APAC, Facebook
Nicholas Kolesch, Vice President of Projects, Alliance to End Plastic Waste
Vasimon Ruanglek, Innovative Alliances Manager, Thailand, SCG
Ashok Menon, Director, Sustainability Strategy and Circular Economy, APAC, @SABIC
Jerome Le Borgne, Country Manager, Thailand & Project Development Director, SEA, SUEZ Group
Dr. Michael Schmidt, Head of Global Innovation Management & Group Innovation APAC, Covestro
Matthew Claxton, Global Director of Sustainability, Plug and Play Tech Center
Murray Hyde, COO, The Plastics Circle
Trish Hyde, CEO, The Plastics Circle
Chandni Jaga, Associate, Ventures, Plug and Play APAC
Mr. Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Deputy Secretary General, Thailand Board of Investment (BOI)
Mr Ian Sanchez, Co-Founder, Qwote PH and Ventures Manager, f(dev) Digital Foundry, Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC)
Supanavit Eiamsakulrat, Chief Executive Officer, K.E. Group
Parth Patel, Vice President Marketing, Asia Pacific & Middle East Africia, Kerry Group
Dr. Shariman Alwani, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Sime Darby Plantation
Wanwisa Wongkasit (Pear), Program Manager, Food & AgTech, Plug and Play Thailand
