8 startups accepted into JFDI.Asia’s second bootcamp, female entrepreneur participation doubles

JFDI.Asia, a Singapore-based accelerator program has just unveiled the eight selected startup team for its second intake.

Those familiar with the startup scene in Singapore would have heard of JFDI. Founded by Hugh Mason and Wong Meng Weng, the 100 days idea to investment accelerator program incubated eleven startups during its first batch last year. Of the original 11 teams, 7 (63%) raised follow-on funding.

For its new batch, the incubatee covers a great regional scope: with teams from India, Philippines, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and of course, Singapore. Here are the eight selected ones:

1. AskAbt, from India, have a platform to manage real-time crowdsourced queries (C2C)
2. Collabspot, from France and Philippines, have a novel approach to Customer Relationship Management (B2B)
3. DayTripR, from Singapore and New Zealand, have an online data collection utility (B2B)
4. DocTree, from Singapore and India, have software for medical practice management (B2B2C)
5. Duable Chinese (讀able), from the USA, make Chinese language learning fun and effective (B2C)
6. Fashfix, from Singapore and Malaysia, helps fashionistas turn their wardrobes into blog shops (C2C)
7. My Fitness Wallet, from Singapore, are working on health and wellness (B2C)
8. Referoll, from Singapore and Vietnam, have a business that recruits participants for research studies (B2B2C)

The 100 day program begins on 21 February at JFDI.Asia’s new purpose-built facility at 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore.

Each team has landed an immediate S$25,000 investment when they get into the program. After the 100 day intensive program, there will be a Demo Day where the startups get six minutes each on stage to pitch to audience of active early-stage investors.

According to the press release, between now and Demo Day, each team must prove that its baby business can jump three hurdles: it must focus on a real-world problem that is worth solving, it must show that its solution fits that problem, and finally it must prove that the market is willing to pay for its solution. The challenge is less about brilliant ideas than it is about focused execution. Only one thing is certain: it will not be a straight run and, along the way, many teams will need to make painful ‘pivots’ — changes of direction — as they respond to feedback from users.

Some interesting patterns emerged from the selection process:

• 23,472 visitors from 148 countries went online to read about the program.
• 262 teams applied for the program, but only eight was selected. The rest received detailed feedback and an offer of support to fix the issues that seemed to hold back their chances. The hope is that many will be ready for future programs, which JFDI.Asia will now run twice each year.
• More than 30 percent of participants in this program are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents, up from 20 percent in 2012.
• The average team size is just over 3 people, with the ‘holy trinity’ of a ‘hacker, a hipster and a hustler’ well represented to span the skills of coding, design and business.
• Around 10 percent of the entrepreneurs taking part are women, double the number from last year.

JFDI also revealed some of the main reasons why teams are not selected – a little over 3% success rate. For some talented teams applying to JFDI.Asia, the Achilles’ heel was a bad deal with a previous investor that left little motivation for the founders. Others were technically strong but had no direct insight into the domain in which they hoped to operate. Finally, some international teams had no strong tie to the region and were referred to other accelerators around the world because JFDI.Asia innovates in Asia, for Asia.

Read also: JFDI.Asia’s Hugh Mason on 2012 plans