BlueChilli has helped build over 130 companies across the world, so they are no rookies

The comment came out of nowhere. It had no context and was completely unrelated to the events happening around him.

“BlueChilli would be a good name for a business.”

And with that, the father-in-law of Sebastian Eckersley-Maslin returned to his previous task.

Fast forward to 2019 and BlueChilli has grown into a successful venture builder out of Australia. It boasts over 130 startups in its portfolio and three exits, including the IPO of GetSwift, a delivery company.

This week, the company marked its official foray into Singapore with the launch of its brand new programme called the BlueChilli HealthTech Accelerator.

The program, which opened for applications on May 28, will host 15 startups. The selection process is a little different from typical accelerators whereby companies will be put through a “bootcamp-lite” in an effort to see if the partnership is a good fit.

If the companies move to the second stage, the startup will receive a cash injection in exchange a 10 per cent equity stake. Should the startup make it through the program, the early-stage investor Anthill Ventures has committed to investing up to S$1 million (US$725,000) into the startups.

A core focus of the accelerator is to help very young startups find their product-market fit.

“Product-market fit is a function of both building the wrong product but also about the market being able to find the market they want to solve the problem for,” said Eckersley-Maslin.

“So how do we bring the market into the decision room when we are making [the product]?”

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Eckersley-Maslin promises to help startups build the correct product that gets them their first customers, which theoretically allows them to raise their first seed funding, hire more staff and eventually begin to scale the company.

Besides helping build an MVP, startups can expect BlueChilli to develop partnerships, create a pathway towards investment and provide advice about building their first team.

One example highlighted by Eckersley-Maslin is called TalkiPlay (although it participated in the female-focussed accelerator, not the healthtech version). TalkiPlay uses a an IoT device and various NFC-capable stickers around the house to help children improve their vocabulary.

BlueChilli helped take the company through product development, MVP-testing and partnerships. The company recently raised AU$750,000 (US$520,000) to finance the next steps in its journey.

The first half of the healthtech programme (which will take place between September 14 and March 5), is focussed on product development and market validation. The second half will be about growth and investment readiness.

The accelerator accepts startups from basically the entire healthtech industry, but it wants to find companies that “appreciate the context of Southeast Asia.”

BlueChilli is tapping into healthtech because it sees both a need to disrupt, but also an opportunity in a growing sector.

“Obviousy the region has a lot of promise but it’s also quite early stage in its development. So we think it’s the right time for BlueChilli to come in,” said Seow Hui Hong.

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Seow also brought up pull factors like skyrocketing investment growth. According to statistics provided by BlueChilli, Southeast Asian healthtech investment nearly tripled from US$67 million in 2016 to US$171 million in 2018.

Other pull factors are  the fact that Southeast Asia is a mobile-first region, citizens proactively seek solutions and government regulatory bodies are open minded towards finding solutions.

Furthermore, the barrier to entry is lower thanks to technology factors like increased computing power, less expensive sensors and the proliferation of data.

BlueChilli was launched in 2012 with dual headquarters in Singapore (just opened) and Australia. It has a presence in the US, Indonesia and New Zealand. Startups in its portfolio have raised over US$170 million.

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