NIA partners foreign VC firms to build global accelerator programme 

The National Innovation Agency aims to develop Thailand as an “Asean Start-up Hub”, while partnering with international venture-capital (VC) providers to build a global accelerator programme and spending Bt1.2 billion this year on driving the start-up ecosystem nationwide. 
The purpose behind developing the country as an Asean Start-up Hub is to create branding that will act as a springboard for broader start-up hub status in the region, NIA director Pun-Arj Chairatana said this week.
Meanwhile, the agency will collaborate with foreign VC operators – Israel-based AGW and China’s Huawei – to set up a global accelerator programme to leverage experience and transfer knowledge from other countries to local start-ups. 
Start-ups that participate in the programme will receive three months’ training from AGW and Huawei, after which they will be able to pitch for joint ventures and access angel funding from international VC providers, he explained. 
The NIA expects the accelerator programme to commence pitching in the second half of this year, reaching 12 start-ups in the first round. 
“This is the first time that the NIA and the government have joined hands with foreign venture-capital firms and governments to support Thai start-ups. We have signed a memorandum of understanding with AGW and Huawei to run the global accelerator programme. 
“The agency will also collaborate with the Israel Innovation Authority to develop start-ups and ‘smart’ small and medium-sized enterprises in the Kingdom. We want to create awareness about start-ups around the country, so that it has a new economic combatant,” Pun-Arj added.
The NIA this year has a budget of Bt12 billion, some Bt1.086 billion of which is designated for linking up with 30 universities around the country to develop in-campus co-working spaces and leverage 100 start-ups, as well as developing entrepreneurial practice for 30,000 students. 
It will also support scholarships worth Bt100,000 apiece for 550 projects by students with proven creative ideas through to the prototype development stage in the 30 universities, in order to create broader start-up awareness among students, and in turn enable the creation of micro mass-entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial mindset in the universities, the director said. 
The 550 projects will fall under eight categories: property tech, e-commerce, fintech, agri-tech, lifestyle tech, Industry 4.0 and government tech, health tech, and food tech. 
Another Bt180 million will be used to support existing start-ups in around 100 projects during the course of the year.
In addition, the agency will develop eight start-up districts, four of which will be in Bangkok: at Yothi, for medical tech; Siam Square, with a focus on fintech and lifestyle tech; Klong San, for food tech and design start-ups; and Klauynamthai, to support Industry 4.0. 
The four upcountry start-up districts will be in Chiang Mai, focusing on food tech, IT and design start-ups; Khon Kaen, which will support agri-tech and engineering; Chon Buri, for the development of telecom start-ups; and Phuket, focusing on IT and smart cities. 
The Bangkok and upcountry start-up districts will together create an innovation corridor running through the country, Pun-Arj said. 
The government will also hold the “ Startup Thailand 2017” in May, an international start-up event in which the NIA expects 12 countries to participate.
The agency’s director added that all these various efforts would create momentum for investment in and building up the country’s start-up ecosystem.