23 - 24 October, 2024
Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta

Get ready for an epic showdown! The hottest startups in Southeast Asia will face each other in a pitch battle judged by industry experts and a live audience. They’ll vie for global recognition, prize money, media coverage, and other exciting prizes.

3,700+

Startup applications

$200,000+

Cash won

25

Winners

Startup Arena 2024 Finalists

Prize Structure

Startup Arena 2024 Prizes

Winner

US$30,000 worth of Infobip products and solutions

1-year free of Carta Captables Scale plan

Office Hour with Khailee from 500 Global

Tech in Asia MVS Article (worth US$5,000)

1-minute promo reel on Tech in Asia social channels

Prizes of Startup Arena finalists

Runner up & Third Place

1-year free of Carta Captables Build plan

All finalists

A Startup Factory exhibition booth for two days at JKT Conference (worth US$290)

1-1 Mentorship with designated star mentors

1-year of Outclass subscription

Prizes Partners

Startup Arena 2024 Judges

Startup Arena 2024 Star Mentors

Past winners

Handprint is Asia’s leading “regeneration-as-a-service” platform. Its mission is to regenerate the planet at scale by restoring and monitoring vital ecosystems.

Year founded: 2019
Website: https://handprint.tech

Zuno Carbon is a Singapore-based company that provides end-to-end carbon management solutions that help organizations measure, offset, and reduce emissions.

Year founded: 2020
Website: https://www.zunocarbon.com

AltoTech helps companies reduce energy consumption via its energy management platform, which is driven by the Internet of Things and AI.

Year founded: 2011
Website: https://www.altotech.ai/

Startup Arena 2023 highlight

What attendees say

How to apply

We are looking for Southeast Asia’s next innovation powerhouse. Applicants who make it to Startup Arena will have 10 minutes to convince a panel of judges that their startup is the most innovative, impactful, and likely to succeed among the finalists.

Eligibility to apply

Startup Arena welcomes startups that: 

  • Are based in Southeast Asia
  • Have a prototype, MVP, or established operations
  • Have raised less than US$10 million
  • Have a compelling English-language pitch explaining the problem, solution, risk, and potential that drives their business

Evaluation

Five applicants will be shortlisted on the basis of:

  • Targeted problem, solution, and scalability of solution
  • Caliber of the founding team
  • Viability of the business model and its ability to generate future financial returns
  • Technology and business innovation
  • Execution abilities and traction

Participation

Five shortlisted finalists will be sent full instructions and guidelines for their participation in the event, which will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place in Jakarta on October 24, 2024.

Apply for Startup Arena

Startup Arena application is now closed! Your only chance to witness and connect with the next hottest startups is by getting a ticket to Tech in Asia Conference.

Startup Arena application is now closed!

Frequently Asked Questions

All participants must: 

  • Have a working product that delivers an innovative tech solution
  • Have raised less than US$10 million worth of external funds
  • Be proficient in business English 
  • be able to attend the Tech in Asia Conference 2024 in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 23 and 24 in person

Registration for the pitch battle is free. Only selected finalists will be given a general pass to attend the conference.

  • Increased visibility and exposure while pitching in front of thousands of potential customers and investors.
  • Opportunity to receive valuable 1:1 feedback from star mentors.
  • A Startup Factory exhibition booth for two days at the Tech in Asia Conference, valued at US$290.
  • Chance to win exclusive prizes (more to be announced).

Applicants will receive an email notifying them of the results by October 9, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 Tech in Asia. All rights reserved.

Peter Bithos

CEO, SEEK Asia

Peter is the Asia CEO of SEEK, which operates leading employment platforms JobStreet and JobsDB. In his role, Peter is responsible for leading and driving the business’ growth and operations, while building on the company’s success and presence throughout the region.

He brings over 20 years of experience in the Tech, Media and Telco sector, including a decade building and growing P&Ls across Asia. ​​His career includes various CEO and senior management positions encompassing both developed and developing markets and covering a spectrum of companies from start-ups to large enterprises. ​​

Peter’s notable achievements include scaling up digital businesses from scratch and helping spearhead one of the world’s most successful telco transformations over the past decade. He has a proven track record of leading digital business transformation programs and building strong company cultures in diverse markets across Asia Pacific and the United States. ​​

Teddy Oetomo

President, Bukalapak

Teddy Oetomo is the President of Bukalapak; a role he has held since 2020. He oversees the corporate secretary, corporate finance, consumer satisfaction management and investment at Bukalapak.

Prior to joining Bukalapak, Teddy spent three years as Head of Intermediary Business at Schroders Indonesia. Before that, he had a spell at Credit Suisse Indonesia as Head of Equity Research from 2006-2014.

Started his career as a lecturer, he has cultivated more than 11 years of experience in the field of equity market and asset management. Other than that, Teddy hold seven publications in international peer-reviewed academic journals.

Teddy holds Ph.D. in Economics and Bachelor of Economics with first class honors from University of Sydney.

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Dr. Janil Puthucheary

Senior Minister of State Ministry of Communications & Information

Dr. Janil Puthucheary concurrently holds the appointment of Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications and Information and the Ministry of Health of Singapore. Dr. Janil Puthucheary became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 2011 and previously held appointments as Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Education (2017 – 2018) and the Ministry of Transport (2018 – 2020).

Prior to politics, he was a Senior Consultant Paediatric Intensivist and Department Head for Paediatric Specialties in the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and was also an Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

Michael Lints

Partner, Golden Gate Ventures

Michael Lints has 20+ years of experience as a startup operator and investor. He is currently a partner at the Singapore-based VC Golden Gate Ventures. As a partner, he focuses on institutional fundraising. Michael supports the firm on portfolio-level priorities e.g., fundraising and capital allocation.

In 2000 Michael co-founded an IT-managed services startup in Europe that was acquired in 2006. He joined the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman in 2007. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board.

Michael is an active writer and a co-director of an award-winning social impact documentary called Broken Chains.

Hanno Stegmann

Managing Director & Partner, BCG X

Hanno Stegmann is a member of the leadership team of BCG X, Boston Consulting Group’s tech build and design unit. Combining BCG’s deep industry and functional expertise, BCG X brings together advanced tech knowledge and ambitious entrepreneurship to help organizations enable innovation at scale.

Hanno leads BCG X Ventures across Southeast Asia. In this role, he is dedicated to inventing, building, investing in, and launching category-changing businesses at startup speed together with the world’s most influential corporates. Over the last several years, Hanno launched more than ten new businesses in various industrial goods and consumer products companies that have created billion-dollar impact.

Nicholas Nash

Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Asia Partners

Nicholas Nash is a co-founder of Asia Partners, a leading growth equity firm in Southeast Asia. Previously was the Group President of Sea Ltd. from 2014-2018. Led Sea’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: SE), largest ever IPO of a Southeast Asian internet company.

Before that, he worked at General Atlantic for a decade and began his career with McKinsey & Company. Mr. Nash was a member of the WEF ASEAN Regional Strategy Group from 2017-18 and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2013-18.

He is a Kauffman Fellow, member of the Singapore chapter of YPO. On the boards of Ashoka University, U-Go University, Endeavor Indonesia and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the NUS.

Pinn Lawjindakul

Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Pinn is a founding member of Lightspeed Southeast Asia, a global early-stage investment fund. Prior to Lightspeed, she was at Insignia Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management, where she focused on consumer and financial technology across SEA, India and China. She worked closely with Flipkart (sold to Walmart), Ola, Policybazaar, Hike, Games 24×7, Razorpay, Uxin (IPO exit).


Pinn started her career as a management consultant at Bain & Company and also founded Grab’s motorcycle-on-demand in Bangkok, Thailand. Pinn graduated from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania with a double degree in Psychology and Finance.

Adrian Li

Managing Partner & Founder, AC Ventures

Adrian is Founder & Managing Partner at AC Ventures, formerly Convergence Ventures. ACV is an early stage Indonesia focused technology venture capital fund. ACV manages 5 funds with AUM of over US$500M and with a portfolio of over 120 businesses invested in the past 8 years. Investments led for the funds include, Payfazz, Koinworks, Julo, Stockbit, Xendit, Shipper, Ula, Edenfarm, Segari, Astro, Carsome, M17 and more. Previously, he co-founded several ventures in China and Indonesia.

Adrian graduated from Cambridge University with a BA and MA in Economics. He obtained his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and is currently enrolled in the Tsinghua OBOR EMBA program. He is a Kauffman Fellow in Class 21.

Eddie Thai

General Partner, Ascend Vietnam Ventures

Eddie Thai is general partner of AVV, an early-stage VC firm on a mission to help exceptional teams in Vietnam and elsewhere in building iconic companies. He is particularly on the lookout for breakthrough approaches in fintech, edtech, and enterprise SaaS. Eddie also continues to steward 500 Globa’s Vietnam-focused fund, for which he led more than 30 investments including Axie Infinity (a16z-backed NFT gaming unicorn), ApplyBoard (Fidelity-backed edtech unicorn), Trusting Social (Sequoia-backed fintech centaur), and Base.vn (enterprise SaaS; acquired).

He received degrees from Harvard and Yale, and serves in advisory roles with the World Bank (Vietnam 2045 project), UNICEF Vietnam, and the UNDP (business integrity project).

Divya Gokulnath

Co-Founder, BYJU’S

Divya Gokulnath is a visionary education entrepreneur, co-founder of BYJU’S – The Learning App, and a strong advocate of equitable and accessible learning. Under her leadership, BYJU’S has transformed the way students learn, impacting over 150 million learners worldwide, and becoming the world’s largest edtech company valued at $22 billion. Having played a pivotal role in establishing and expanding BYJU’S brand in the Indian market, Divya now actively leads the charge in scaling BYJU’S international business across multiple countries. 

As a former teacher, Divya’s dedication to creating personalized learning experiences has made her a true powerhouse in the world of edtech. Divya has been instrumental in launching BYJU’S Education For All, a social initiative that has empowered 5.5 million children from underprivileged backgrounds. She is also a strong advocate for diversity in the workplace and an ardent supporter of India’s fast-growing startup ecosystem and continues to be a mentor for budding young entrepreneurs. 

She has been featured on Fortune 40 under 40 entrepreneurs 2022 list, Fortune Most Powerful Women (2022, 2021, 2020), ASU GSV Power of Women (2021), Business Today’s Most Powerful Women (2019, 2020, 2021) award, LinkedIn Top Voices in Education (2019,2020) (India and Global) and Forbes Asia’s 25 Most Powerful Women (2020).

Suthen Thomas Paradatheth

Group Chief Technology Officer, Grab

Suthen is the Group Chief Technology Officer of Grab. Based in Singapore, he oversees Grab’s technology teams across the company’s Deliveries, Mobility and Financial services businesses.

As Grab’s GCTO, Suthen is responsible for driving Grab’s technology vision, strategy and execution across the entire company. He plays a critical role in optimising Grab’s superapp synergies to drive sustainable growth and create greater value, convenience, and efficiencies for consumers and partners.

Prior to this, Suthen was Chief Technology Officer of Mobility, Automation and Platform Excellence, Deliveries, and Experiences. He was also Grab’s first technical lead when the company was founded in 2012. Throughout his time at Grab, he led the development of many Grab products and platforms, which supported the rapid growth of Grab’s Deliveries and Mobility services. He also held operational leadership roles and founded the Business Operations team. His unique background in technology and operations closely mirrors Grab’s business, which connects offline services with online consumers.

Suthen received a Bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering from Multimedia University in 2005, where he graduated with First Class Honours. He also received a Master’s degree in Public Policy in 2015 from the Harvard Kennedy School on a twin Fullbright Scholarship and Khazanah Global Scholarship.

Darius Mahtani Cheung

CEO, 99 Group

Darius Mahtani Cheung is the founder and CEO of 99 Group, a leading real estate technology company in Southeast Asia, operating leading brands including 99.co, SRX and Rumah123.

Prior to founding 99, Darius founded tenCube, a mobile security company he founded and served as CEO for 5 years and was later acquired by McAfee, where he served as the Director for Mobile Technology for 2 years. Darius is also an angel investor in over 20 startups.

Roshni Mahtani Cheung

CEO, The ParentInc

Roshni Mahtani Cheung is the founder and group CEO of The Parentinc. The company is behind the hugely popular theAsianparent website and mobile app, which together see 35 million users every month from 13 countries, as well as mother and baby care brand Mama’s Choice.

Khailee Ng

Managing Partner, 500 Global

Khailee Ng is a managing partner at multi-stage venture capital firm 500 Global. He has led over 300 investments in Southeast Asian tech startups, including unicorns Grab, Carousell, Bukalapak, Carsome, eFishery, FinAccel, and other regional champions. Prior to 500, he was the founder of Groupsmore (acquired by Groupon) and Malaysia’s largest online media company, Says.com (acquired by Media Prima).

Gavin Teo

General Partner, Altara Ventures

Gavin Teo is a General Partner at Altara Ventures, where he invests in high-growth tech startups in Southeast Asia. He presently serves as Board Director to Clevai, Kyan Technologies, Med247, Sampingan, Saturdays, Galen Growth and Frontier Investment Corp (NASDAQ: FICVU).

Mr. Teo was formerly General Partner at B Capital Group where he managed the firm’s IC and served on the boards of several investments including AIMotive (acq. by Stellantis) and SilverCloud Health (acq. by AmWell). Earlier in his career, Mr. Teo held appointments at Comcast Ventures, Zynga and Bain & Company. Mr. Teo earned his M.B.A. from The Wharton School, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar and his B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Sheji Ho

CEO and Co-Founder, HD

Sheji is the CEO and co-founder of HD, the leading healthcare and surgery marketplace in Southeast Asia. Previously a co-founder of aCommerce, he has worked in the U.S., China, and Southeast Asia in tech and ecommerce. He has an MBA from NYU Stern and an undergraduate degree in engineering from the Netherlands where he grew up.

Leon Farrant

CEO and Co-Founder, Green Li-ion Pte Ltd

Leon Farrant, the Chief Executive Officer of the Green Li-Ion Pte Ltd, is an awarded and accomplished Leader who has been exposed to the energy and engineering sectors as a CEO and executive manager for over 15 years. Leon’s experience driving the performance of global energy industry companies saw him lead large, dispersed teams and technical projects to success. Leon is known for his consensus-building ability, vision and rigour. Leon is a socially and environmentally conscious leader that tries to support diverse communities.

Shailendra Singh

Managing Director, Peak XV

Shailendra is a Managing Director at Peak XV which has partnered with over 400 companies in the technology, consumer and financial space over the last 17 years. He joined the firm in 2006 and spearheads all activities in India and the ASEAN region.

Shailendra has advised on several successful investments including Carousell, CRED, Druva, Gojek, Pine Labs, Tokopedia and Unacademy.

He was included on the Forbes Midas List of top global VCs in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He has received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay.

Moses Lo

Founder & CEO, Xendit

Moses Lo is the Founder and CEO of Xendit, a financial technology company providing payments across Southeast Asia. Xendit processes more than 25b USD annually and over 300 million transactions for global brands to the newest startups. Over the years, Xendit has been recognised with awards such as CNBC Upstart 100, The Best Payments Initiative. Xendit was recognised as a unicorn in 2021.

Moses earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of New South Wales, majoring in finance and information systems management. He began his career as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, before obtaining his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a short stint at Amazon.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, Moses has always had a dream of starting his own business and creating outsized positive impact. At Xendit, Moses is passionate about improving digital infrastructure in Indonesia and the wider region through providing the best payment solutions in Southeast Asia. He’s been recognised as Forbes 30 under 30 and received the UNSW Alumni award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Where do I find my unique promo code?

Core, Lite, and ID+ subscribers enjoy exclusive offers, including free access to Tech in Asia Conference 2022.

To find your unique promo code:

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Check the inbox of the email address associated with your subscription, and search for an email containing your promo code sent via conference@techinasia.com (Lite, Core) or indonesia@techinasia.com (ID+).

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Sign in to techinasia.com and navigate through the bell icon on the top-right corner to your screen, to find the message containing your promo code.

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