[Echelon Live] Builk wins startup pitch, with Between as runner up

Last Update: 12/6 @ 4:05PM

With a total of 10 startups taking the stage, facing strict scrutiny from the judges, Builk emerges top at our Echelon 2012 Startup Pitch.

This post is part of the live coverage of Echelon 2012, Asia’s leading tech startup event happening on June 11 – 12. If you spot typos, slight inaccuracies or need more clarification, do leave a comment in the post and we’ll address it in the next edit.

The various companies which pitched (in the following order) include Ragic, Klik-Eat, Builk, Perx, SnapDish, Gimmie, DropMyEmail, Beatrobo, Payroll Hero, and Between.

Builk, is a startup that aims to connect professionals in the construction industry on its networking site. What stroke the chords with the judges was that Builk is disrupting an industry which is obsolete and therefore has a tremendous amount of potentials. It is also an example of startup which is built by Asia for Asia,which was mentioned by Vincent Lauria, one of the judges, as a very interesting value proposition.

Another startup which received an honourable mention and staged a very strong fight against Builk was Between, the mobile social app for lovers, which is coined as the world’s most exclusive social network by The Economist. What amazed me with Between’s pitch was its mind blowing traction: 900,000 downloads to date, with an average of 4.9million messages sent a day, an average of 350,000 photos uploaded per day, and its users spent an average of 10 minutes in the app everyday. Wow.

Photo: Between app’s amazing traction

When we spoke to the judges after the pitching, most of them were really impressed by the quality of the startups which pitched, and comes from a wide range of industries from multiple region. Yasuhiko Yurimoto, Founder and CEO of Global Brain for one feels that the traction of some of the startups pitched were amazing, and is interested in following up with some of them.

For the rest of the startups, a job well done for being on stage and pitching in front a strong crowd of near to 1000 attendees. While Builk emerges as the winner, to us, all of you are winners too.

Thanks for following the live coverage of Echelon 2012. If you’d like to check out more coverage of the sessions at Echelon 2012, follow this link.