Sunway iLabs conclude super accelerator with five startups

• Five startups selected from more than 120 applicants
• Sunway iLabs adds US$36k worth of investment to selected startups

After three intensive months since its pre-accelerator, Sunway iLabs concluded its super accelerator with a demo day which saw five top startups pitching to prominent investors across the region.

In a statement, Sunway iLabs said the five startups, namely Loop Foods, Rentguard, Singular, Trabble, and Wise Crafters were selected from more than 120 applicants.

Over the last four months, they received mentorship, attended sharing sessions by prominent founders and investors, pitched to various investors and worked with key management within the Sunway ecosystem, it said.

Sunway iLabs said it will be making another US$36,000 (RM150,000) worth of investments to selected startups on top of the US$60,000 (RM250,000) made at the start of the accelerator.

[RM1 = US$0.24]

Matt van Leeuwen, chief innovation officer of Sunway Group and director of Sunway iLabs, said operating in the new normal comes with a new set of challenges - despite that, the startups have pushed through, leveraging on the Sunway ecosystem as a testbed to run pilot projects of real commercial value. 

“Our unique investment approach of selecting startups and providing two tranches allows for increased investor confidence and more room for the startups to focus on growth, rather than having to raise funds shortly after they graduate from the accelerator programme,” he said.

Combined, the five startups have raised a total of approximately US$1.2 million on the back of the investment from the Sunway iLabs super accelerator during the programme.

They ran five projects with different business units with another three in the planning phase, it said.

“The progress in which the startups have made throughout the three month accelerator has been very impressive.

“We will continue to work with them after the programme to foster more strategic corporate-startup collaborations and innovations across Sunway iLabs’ six focus verticals.” said head of Sunway iLabs Ventures, Dr Melissa Foo.

This programme is supported by Sunway, SunSEA capital, Gobi Partners, Mavcap, and Sunway Education Group, in addition to the programme’s perk partners – LAW Partnership, AWS, Alliance Bizsmart, Xero, BEAMSTART, FoundingBird, Engine Mailer, HubSpot, Microsoft, and Vase.ai. 

Selected startups were provided seed funding of up to US$24,000 and will be able to tap into the vast network within the Sunway ecosystem.