KASIKORNBANK (KBank) is determined to promote Thai startups to realize their dreams and successfully reach their business goals. The Bank has unveiled the KATALYST STARTUP LAUNCHPAD 2022 program to equip participants with a ‘recipe for success’ for world-class startups during a nine-week intensive course, available free of charge. After completing the course, participants will possess the knowledge to allow them to further forge alliances with partners both in Thailand and other countries. They are also invited to pitch their ideas in a competition in order to win prize money plus solutions for accelerating their business growth – three prizes with a combined value of 800,000 Baht are up for grabs. Interested persons are invited to apply for the program, which focuses on startups in FinTech, HealthTech, TravelTech, EdTech and GreenTech. This program reinforces KBank’s intention to develop Thai startups in order to advance the Thai economy while fostering sustainability in the society and the nation, alike.
Ms. Kattiya Indaravijaya, KBank Chief Executive Officer, said, “KBank is always determined to develop Thai startups that will last with strong growth and a solid foundation to comprehensively meet the business sector’s needs. Our efforts aim to advance the Thai economy and foster sustainability for the society and the nation. KBank has provided support to Thai startup companies across all dimensions, including funding support via Beacon Venture Capital and provision of knowledge and effective tools to enable their business growth. To this end, the KATALYST program was initiated to arrange activities promoting the startup community on a continual basis, especially through knowledge-sharing sessions, business collaboration, advisory service and solutions to enhance startup capability and efficiency.
The KATALYST STARTUP LAUNCHPAD 2022 program is one of the activities that KBank has offered to startups. The program transfers know-how for growing a successful business at an international level to startups in Thailand, so they can build their own business infrastructure and apply such knowledge in a concrete manner. This program includes online course materials offered as part of a research project of the Stanford Thailand Research Consortium, led by Charles (Chuck) Eesley, an associate professor at Stanford University.
Ms. Kattiya added, “For its third year, the KATALYST STARTUP LAUNCHPAD 2022 program will be organized under the ‘Jumpstart your ideas through entrepreneurial mindset’ concept, with the aim of steering startups and their business ideas towards sustainability via a nine-week intensive course. Applications are open from now until July 31, 2022, and the program will run from August 23 to October 24, 2022. This year, KBank has joined with various partners in allowing program participants to seek advice from mentors in a diverse range of industries at home and abroad, such as the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) and Microsoft Thailand Co., Ltd., as well as specialists from KASIKORN Business-Technology Group (KBTG), executives from Beacon VC. This aims to help Thai startups and their teams unleash their full potential. The KATALYST STARTUP LAUNCHPAD 2022 program will offer comprehensive knowledge that helps improve the potential of startups, ranging from ways to come up with great business ideas, to customer needs analysis, development of competitive potential, branding, product development, traits of successful entrepreneurs, marketing, financial management, business planning, and presentation skills. Moreover, during the final week of the program, any startup teams with outstanding performance will be selected to present their work to a panel of judges. The winning teams will receive prize money plus solutions for growing their business – three prizes are up for grabs with a combined value of 800,000 Baht – as well as an opportunity for business collaboration with KBank, including product development to meet consumer needs in the digital age. The participants who meet all of the program criteria will receive a certificate from KATALYST by KBank and a statement of participation from Stanford online for completing the online learning program. This also provides a great opportunity for business network expansion with several leading domestic and international companies.
Ms. Kattiya said in closing that KATALYST STARTUP LAUNCHPAD 2022 is a program that KBank is proud of, which supports Thai startups in applying their knowledge and skills to operate and expand their business to achieve success. The participants will learn and practice all of the steps with hands-on support from specialized mentors in sharing knowledge and tactics including technology, design and business, so as to enhance their potential and ensure that the participating entrepreneurs can make use of the course effectively. In the past two years, 52 teams of Thai startups have completed the course, and many of them have been able to practically apply the knowledge they gained in accelerating their business growth and success. This year, KBank mainly aims to support tech startups in FinTech, HealthTech, TravelTech, EdTech and GreenTech, in preparation for the comprehensive growth of these business sectors in the future.
Interested persons can view course details and participant qualifications, and apply for the program, at KATALYST’s website https://katalyst.kasikornbank.com/th/Pages/startup_launchpad 2022.html, or find further updates at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KATALYSTbyKBank