Bt200m tipped into fund for startups, IT upgrades
THE Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) is putting about Bt200 million into a DEPA Fund that will support startups and help other businesses that want to integrate information technology into their operations.
Chatchai Khunpitiluk, senior executive vice president of DEPA, said the funds would be split evenly between a Startup Fund and a DEPA Transformation Fund.
For the startup fund, the agency will provide grants or angel funding for the startups that need money for their projects. The funding will be allocated at three levels: Bt50,000, Bt1 million or Bt5 million per project. It is already offering around 400 startup projects funding at the Bt50,000 level.
For those startups wanting to access the higher levels of funding - at Bt1 million and Bt5 million - the agency will provide support through co-investment with the founders. The level of funding allocated would be determined by the size and operational demands of the startups.
Chatchai said that, in such cases, the agency will hold equity of less than 50 per cent per project and the startup would be able to withdraw the equity from DEPA within three years.
The agency expects that around 800 startups will participate in the startup angel funding project for the allocations of Bt50,000 per project. For the co-investment funds valued at Bt1 million per project, around 40 ventures are expected to join up. Four startups are expected to gain co-investment funds at the Bt5 million allocation.
In total, some 845 startup projects are forecast to join the DEPA Fund project by the end of this year.
The DEPA Transformation Fund will provide funding to help small and medium-sized enterprises transition to a higher level with information technology from local software producers and product developers.
The project will provide allocations on the same basis as the startup fund: Bt50,000, Bt1 million and Bt5 million per project. The funds will help participating companies benefit from information technology with improved productivity and operational efficiencies. The amount provided will depend on the size of the project.
“We will take the role of facilitator to make matches between startups and SMEs as well as with companies that meet the requirements,” Chatchai said. “This will create a win-win situation for everyone.”
The agency also partnered with Rise and King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) to conduct the Startup FastTrack - Go Inter programme with the Depa project. The initiative seeks to help Thai startups move into the international market.
Startups, university students and people who want to scale up their business are invited to participate in the project. A competition will then be held. Three winners will be chosen and they will have the opportunity to promote their projects with venture capital funds in Singapore at the Echelon Asia Summit 2018 in June. The event is an international digital startup and technology conference.
