Is Thailand falling behind in the startup race? Techsauce Global Summit Bangkok
by Asina Pornwasin
Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, CEO and co-founder of summit organiser Techsauce Media, underlined the forthcoming conference’s importance as a platform for tech enthusiasts across different industries to discuss digital knowledge, ideas and experiences.
“For this year, we picked issues around our theme, celebrating world-changing technologies, to broaden views of how technology creates a huge impact on our world and affects big-name companies as well as the general pubic,” said Oranuch.
Various topics, ranging from blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), the role of women in the tech industry, and the social impacts from AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) technologies on health, energy, smart city and music, are being discussed.
The event, to be held in June, will also feature a technology-focused exhibition and business matching.
The theme of Techsauce Global Summit 2019 is “World Changing Technology”, emphasising the universal impact of technology that reaches beyond the corporate sphere to include everyone.
Techsauce Media and HUBBA have organised the summit since 2016. Among Southeast Asia’s largest startup and tech conferences, the summit this year is expected to attract approximately 20,000 participants, double last year’s figures.
Techsauce Media bases estimates on Thailand’s startup ecosystem based on publicly disclosed information.
“This is a must come event for those who want to be a part of the network of Asia’s top startups, entrepreneurs and tech insiders. Techsauce Summit is where you need to be.”
The total (disclosed) fundraising in Thailand in 2018 was US$61.25 million (1.94 billion baht), a large decrease from the $106.10 million (3.37 billion baht) in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of deals in 2018 totalled 35, an increase from 31 deals in 2017.
During the past eight years, 2011 to 2018, the total estimated value of startup funding in Thailand was $337.37 million (10.72 billion baht).
Even the total value of startup fundraising in Thailand is quite small when compared to other countries in the region, especially Indonesia and Singapore. Thailand has active investors – corporate venture capital funds (CVC) and venture capital funds (VC), along with accelerators.
In 2018, tech startup deals in Thailand reached at least $61.5 million. Food/bio/restaurant, fintech, e-commerce marketplace and property-tech were the top four industries with the highest number of deals.
This was followed by digital content, travel tech, marketing tech, reward and enterprise platforms. Meanwhile, funding deals in construction, agriculture and robotics were few.
“It is the big challenge for the country. To drive the country to move forward, we need sufficient numbers and quality talents. It is an urgent agenda that I urge the government to focus on,” said Oranuch.
