NTT Communications organises startup competition in Indonesia

NTT Communications, Japan's largest telecom firm, held "Startup Challenge 2018" event for supporting Asian startup ecosystem with an opportunity for funding and to gain access to investors network and quality of technological infrastructure.

"Our final goal for the startup challenge powered by NTT Communications is supporting the startup ecosystem in Indonesia. Asia is one of the most important regions for us. Indonesia has a huge population and there are many startup companies here. We now put on strong emphasis here to support ecosystem by making most of our IT infrastructure," said Yasunori Kinebuchi, NTT Communications.

This year's NTT Communications Startup Challenge took place in three countries- Indonesia as the opening country, followed by Malaysia and Vietnam. There were approximately 500 more startup companies applying for this event compared to last year.

Startups from various categories such as IoT, FinTech, and e-commerce applied and only 10 companies were nominated for the final pitch session.

In this session, each company made presentations, described unique and innovative ideas and highlighted their strong suites. The judging criteria for this competition included a variety of aspects such as "Idea", "Challenge and Solution" and "Strategy and Team".

During the event, a question and answer session was held, where discussions between presenters and judges took place.

"I am very excited to see the amount of effort that NTT Communications has poured into event such as this in South East Asia, which is definitely becoming a hot spot for investment dollars coming from countries such as Japan, China, US and also within South East Asia," said Kuan Hsu from Sun Sea Capital.

As a result of final deliberations, first prize award included the right of collaboration with NTT Communications, Free use of ICT infrastructure went to the company that provides services for connecting farmers with investors.

"I am feeling very nervous and excited about the announcement. I hope this reward would not be just a reward. Next plan is for my company to grow with the help of NTT and achieve more in technology," said Agi Ananta from iGrow.

The startup ecosystem in Asia is attracting huge interest and with the help of Japanese companies, firms in this region can achieve higher prospects.