SINGAPORE, July 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvelstone's (www.marvelstone.co) accelerator platform 10K (http://10K.asia/) recently acquired Waha Group's business operations in Singapore, Indonesia and Korea, as well as 2 independent cafes operated by Bean Tree 200.25, a Korean coffee franchise in Seoul.
Joel Ko, Managing Partner of Marvelstone announced the acquisitions. "10K understands that the venture space is evolving and growing at different paces, especially across the Asian region. We believe that it is not just the tech sector that is seeing innovation; other business sectors can be better served through new approaches as well," he explained. "And, by providing both hardware and software from the start, we believe we will be in a good position to give our network of startups even more room for growth in new markets."
Explaining his interest in these two sectors, Ko said that Waha is a startup accelerator that provides business offices for startups in Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea. Waha's local knowledge of these markets, said Ko, will therefore help 10K's startups understand what local entrepreneurs and companies require, providing a boost to their efforts.
The growth of mobile entrepreneurs in the region has also created new opportunities for traditional coffee businesses like Bean Tree 200.25, hence triggering Marvelstone's interest. Said Ko, "These coffee businesses are increasingly used as multifunctional mobile working spaces, and can serve as testbeds for new products and services developed by 10K's startups. Plus, acquiring independent coffee chains gives us an opportunity to scale up their operations in other markets overseas, whilst creating new business streams locally in Korea."
These two deals are just the first of many to come. According to Ko, 10K is working towards having 10 co-working hubs under its belt by the end of 2015. It aims to do so via similar acquisitions in Singapore, Vietnam, Bangalore and San Francisco. The startup accelerator/incubator is also exploring the option to list in Catalist Singapore (www.sgx.com/catalist) or Korea's 3rd bourse, Korea New Exchange (Konex) to further raise capital for expansion. By next year, Ko revealed, 10K will increase to 20 to 30 more hubs, and has plans to list on the mainboard eventually.
Gina Heng, Marvelstone CEO stated, "Marvelstone will start its 2015 acceleration program in September, hosted out of 10K in Singapore and Korea. With these acquisitions, Marvelstone aims to build an ecosystem for Asian startups, with 10K as the platform. In doing so, 10K will provide not just space and investments, but a total ecosystem that caters to startups in Asia."
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