JETRO held the “Singapore-Japan Fast Track Pitch Event” in Singapore to accelerate global open innovation of Japanese companies/startups

Apr 28, 2023

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), co-organising with Singapore government agencies, held the first “Singapore-Japan Fast Track Pitch Event” in Singapore to accelerate global open innovation of Japanese companies and startups.

METI and JETRO, co-organising with Singapore government agencies, held the first Singapore-Japan Fast Track Pitch Event (the "Fast Track Pitch Event") in Singapore on April 20th.

In front of more than 200 in-person participants and 300 online audiences, 22 startups from Japan, Singapore, and other regions presented their proposals on the open innovation challenges provided by the 8 challenge owners including Japanese companies and Singapore-based global companies.

Prior to the presentations, Mr. Yasutoshi NISHIMURA, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and Dr Tan See Leng, Second Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore, gave opening remarks via video messages, stressing the importance of strengthening cooperation for the creation of innovation between the two countries.

During the application period, more than 140 startups from all over the world submitted proposals to challenges provided by challenge owner companies, including 4 Japanese companies and 4 Singapore-based global companies. From among these, the following 22 startups selected as finalists by each challenge owner presented their proposals.

Please refer to JETRO’s special website for the detailed challenge statements and finalist startups.

Singapore-Japan Fast Track Pitch Event

At the pitch event venue, participants, including challenge owners, startups, VCs, accelerators, government organizations, and co-organisers, actively engaged in the network session and built network with other participants.

In ASEAN, which is expected to become a growth center, driving the world economy, leapfrogging startups have been creating many innovations that solve social issues by utilizing digital technology in a wide range of fields such as logistics, payments, and finance. In addition, due to the young population structure and rapidly rising income levels, the size of the middle-income population that enjoys an affluent consumer lifestyle, especially in urban areas, is increasing.

For Japanese companies, it is becoming crucial to develop strategic collaboration with startups that are achieving rapid growth so that they can incorporate innovations that are newly created in the ASEAN region and improve their competitiveness in the growing ASEAN market.

With this understanding and taking the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation this year, METI and JETRO have decided to launch the “ASEAN-Japan Co-Creation Fast Track Initiative” to support the creation of open innovation through collaboration between startups and large companies from both ASEAN and Japan. This initiative proposes a new format of cooperation with ASEAN countries to create new innovations.

Under the ASEAN-Japan Co-Creation Fast Track Initiative, startups from ASEAN and Japan will have the opportunity to (1) receive support not only from Japanese organizations such as JETRO, but also from the government agencies of ASEAN countries, and (2) access not only major Japanese companies but also a wide range of startup ecosystems, including global companies based in ASEAN.

In Singapore, METI, JETRO, and Embassy of Japan in Singapore from Japanese government, together with Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore, Singapore Economic Development Board, and Enterprise Singapore, co-organized the first Fast Track Pitch Event in Singapore with extensive supports from more than 40 supporting companies and organizations.

The next round of the Fast Track Pitch Event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand. More details will be announced when decided.