The startup scene in Thailand might be young, but it is extremely active and growing stronger. Offering privileged access to the Southeast Asian market and a friendly and diverse culture, Thailand is among the best places to get a startup off the ground in the area. Its diversification over the last few years shows a promising future ahead – and plans to open a new digital park in 2018 are set to foster growth even further.
The Startup Scene in Thailand is Thriving
As Techinasia reports, the startup landscape in Thailand has seen rapid growth. From just 3 startups in 2012, it grew to over 90 startups in 2017 – which had collectively raised more than US$280 million. The country currently has a density of one venture per 113,000 residents and the numbers keep getting better and better. This seems to compare poorly to Southeast Asia’s startup capital, Singapore, which boasts an impressive density of one startup per 2,800 residents, yet Thailand has done more with less. In 2014, Singapore devoted 2.2% of its GDP to furthering research and expenditure, while Thailand invested just 0.5% of its GDP.
E-commerce, FinTech and e-logistics are among the top startup sectors that show the greatest potential on the Thai scene – but the positive effect of having a robust startup scene can be felt in ripples across other industries as well. A lot of startups that start off in those fields expect – or at least, aspire to – significant growth, so scalable solutions are important. Solutions like a load balancer, which helps distribute traffic across servers in an optimal way and maximize application performance can ensure startups are ready to deal with increased traffic that can result from success and traffic spikes that write-ups on popular websites can bring to a new business, especially an innovative startup. Therefore, this could mean an increased demand for IT professionals in Thailand and could help boost the viability of the local tech sector.
True Digital Park Set to Launch in Q4 2018
Now, the situation seems to be changing: the government is looking to promote research in the area, while the private sector shows excitement at the industry’s potential, with many angel investors paying close attention to Thailand. As part of efforts to transform the country into a true innovation hub, Thai company True Corporation is planning to launch True Digital Park within Q4 2018. The vast co-working space will range over 77,000 square meters (the equivalent of 10 soccer fields) and include over 1,000 workstations, with more than 4,000 square meters dedicated to specialized tech labs and experience centers.
It will also feature 4 dedicated spaces for events, with a maximum capacity of 500 participants, over 200 shops including restaurants and a 24-hour library, and the country’s first Government Digital One-Stop-Service to cut back on red tape. 30% of the park will be devoted to green spaces – the largest such investment by a private developer so far. The park aims to provide not only an efficient co-working space that will forge ties between up-and-coming startups and experts, incubators and accelerators, but also to build a vibrant startup community from the ground up, in an effort to contribute to a startup scene that will last and realize its full potential.
According to Techinasia, there is already much enthusiasm among representatives and founders of startups that will work inside the new park, including spacetech startup Mu Space, online payment provider Omise and online medical consultancy service firm Chiiwii, to name but a few.
