Ten Series A startups are about to embark on the seventh edition of the Google for Startups (GFS) Accelerator for Southeast Asia and Pakistan.
Hailing from six countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam, and diverse sectors ranging from healthtech to edutech, these startups reflect the opportunities and challenges currently present in the region.
All about edutech
In edutech, while we see investments in this sector starting to reduce due to the reopening of economies, there is still much headroom to reimagine the learning experience, particularly in the realms of levelling working professionals.
Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an approximately 30 per cent increase in jobs that require bilingual proficiency for business discussions, presentations and more.
This is why Bluente‘s approach is interesting. The Singapore-based company – one of the ten startups in this year’s GFS Accelerator for Southeast Asia and Pakistan – has developed a business language learning mobile app that delivers bite-size courses for working professionals.
It is built for self-paced learning and offers personalised classes according to the user’s proficiency level. It uses attractive flashcards and real-life case studies in its lessons, allowing learners to retain words effectively.
Also Read: How Noodle Factory addresses educator burnout with its AI-powered teaching assistants
Meanwhile, Wela School System, a startup headquartered in the Philippines, has built an end-to-end school system where students (and their parents) can easily view grades, announcements and billing statements through a mobile app.
OOOLAB from Vietnam, on the other hand, has developed an online e-learning platform to support education organisations by providing an all-in-one, low-code learning infrastructure for K-12s, universities, tutoring centres, corporates, and even fellow edutech startups.
Healthtech in all its glory
Healthtech is another nascent but growing sector in Southeast Asia, where startups are increasingly focused on addressing challenges like poor access to healthcare and rising healthcare costs, which are prevalent in many countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Opportunities in the well-being space also abound for HealthTech founders, with mental care becoming more top of mind among people in the region.
Healthtech startups have their work cut out for them as they are working to transform an established, traditional sector that is healthcare. What they need most are partnerships and support from government agencies and policymakers to help drive the adoption of their solutions, which accelerator programs can help provide. Notably, the four healthtech startups in this year’s GFS Accelerator for Southeast Asia and Pakistan are working to improve access to quality medical attention in the region.
Vietnam-based Docosan, for instance, is a platform that lets people book doctor appointments and tests online and order medication to be delivered to their doorsteps. HonestDocs from Thailand is a healthcare and surgery marketplace that works with over 1,000 healthcare providers, while Elfie, a Singapore startup, aims to reduce the burden of chronic diseases by rewarding patients for self-monitoring through a mobile app. In Indonesia, Mindtera supports companies by using data-driven insights to increase the performance, productivity and well-being of employees.
Over in Pakistan, logistic startup Rider is looking to level up the country’s burgeoning e-commerce sector, which includes solving problems like items getting lost or damaged in the delivery process, which is largely caused by a disjointed logistics infrastructure. Rider has built a modern logistics platform to support online sellers and, to date, is working with over 1,000 online sellers across 60 cities in Pakistan.
Also Read: It is costly to develop and sell insurance products in Indonesia: PasarPolis CEO
Finally, we are seeing a lot of buzz and action in the startup scene in Indonesia. Noice, a local audio platform that offers podcasts, audio series, live audio and radio streaming services, is actively championing the local online audio creator community.
PasarMikro, which has built an agri-commodity trade platform, is tackling a bottleneck in the agricultural value chain by enabling existing traders, aggregators and farmers to easily access working capital and digitalisation services.
Come February, these ten startups will begin the GFS Accelerator program and receive mentorship from Googlers and industry experts in multiple areas, which include product development, engineering best practices, leadership and team development, and marketing.
We look forward to meeting the founders and mentors from across Southeast Asia and Pakistan and helping them build successful businesses.
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