Techstars and Rakuten Team up to Expand Accelerator Footprint With New Program in Singapore

Techstars is excited to announce our expanded investment in Singapore with the Rakuten Accelerator, Powered by Techstars.

Together with Rakuten, a global leader in internet services, Techstars will work with early-stage entrepreneurs who are advancing social messaging technologies, with a focus on the Viber application. This mentorship-driven accelerator will focus on disrupting and revolutionizing how businesses and consumers use messaging to conduct business and stay connected. Areas considered for the program include: AI including chat bot, chat commerce, mobile wallet and crypto currency, ad tech, VR and AR solutions, voice recognition, image recognition, translation, content such as music and sports, chat based IoT, and enterprise integrated messaging.

This new program, our first Accelerator Program in southeast Asia, will help to grow our existing community in the region, where Techstars Startup Programs have been active since 2010.

Participants in the Rakuten Accelerator, powered by Techstars, will also have access to resources from across Rakuten’s global ecosystem of more than 70 services including Rakuten Viber messaging and voice platform. With hundreds of millions of users around the world, Viber also recently became the official communication channel of FC Barcelona, Official Instant Messaging and Calling App Partner of the Golden State Warriors and an official platform for the National Basketball Association.

Applications open in January 2018 with the program kicking off in July 2018. The 3-month intensive program will conclude with a Demo Day, where the participants will pitch their businesses to hundreds of investors from all over the world.

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Rakuten, Singapore

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