JFDI opens applications for next program, doubles investment

The accelerator says it will offer its new start-ups S$50,000 ($37,000) in exchange for a 8.88% equity stake, and is promising an additional S$70,000 follow-on seed stage investment for the most successful teams.

Unlike previous iterations, the program will also be partly delivered online, allowing start-ups from overseas to stay close to their customers and cut costs by basing themselves outside Singapore. In addition to capital, the accelerator is also offering mentoring alongside additional technical support and vendor perks worth S$1.2 million.

"Singapore is an aspirational place for international entrepreneurs to live, incorporate and raise funding, so it's no surprise that 90% of our teams come from overseas to join us," said Meng Weng Wong, JFDI co-founder and chairman.

"But costs are much lower elsewhere in the region and the market for our startups is also often back home. So this time around we are experimenting with transformational technologies like Slack to virtualise our offering, giving teams the option to accelerate with us wherever they choose to be based, for part of the program."

If the online segment of the program is successful, JFDI may go entirely online in future, or offer partial online programs from other regional centers. This will be the sixth batch of start-ups to be accepted into the program. The fifth batch, which launched in October last year, included 12 companies.

Set up in 2011, JFDI is modeled on US accelerator Tech Stars. It looks for teams ready to take businesses from concept to early-stage investment,The accelerator currently claims around 60% of its start-ups reach seed stage, raising S$600,000 on average, per team.

Last month, e-commerce inventory platform TradeGecko became the first JFDI alumni to reach its Series A round when it received $6.5 million from NSI Ventures and existing backers Jungle Ventures.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Singapore
• seed
• JFDI.Asia
• Technology