dtac Accelerate, the startup accelerator programme backed by Thai telco company dtac, has been discontinued.
In an interview with e27, Sompoat Chansomboon, former Managing Director of dtac Accelerate, explained that the discontinue was due to the “new business direction” that the telco has set up.
“The direction of the corporate has been changed with the appointment of the new CEO of dtac at the beginning of the year,” he said.
Chansomboon also announced that the team members that run the programme have all resigned from the company.
As an accelerator programme, dtac Accelerate provides participating startups seed funding and access to dtac and Telenor Group companies in 13 markets.
Its most recent batch was the seventh batch, which saw 15 startups graduating from the programme in May 2019. It has worked with startups from various verticals, from health tech to travel tech.
Also Read: These 11 startups have made it into dtac accelerate 6th batch programme
The announcement about the programme’s discontinuation was made in an Instagram post from December 27, where it expressed gratitude for the continuous support in the past seven years.
A day later, in a Facebook post, Chansomboon highlighted some of the milestones and achievements that dtac Accelerate has made: It has worked with 60 startups and 151 founders with a total valuation of US$227 million.
The startups have raised a total of US$36 million with 70 per cent success rate, working with a network of more than 350 VC and CVC firms.
When asked about his plans for the next year, Chansomboon stated that together with the team that used to run dtac Accelerate, he is preparing to announce “something big” in the “next few weeks.”
“The ecosystem will still continue with the help of our team,” he said. “It will be bigger than how it had been.”
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Image Credit: dtac Accelerate
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