How K-Startup Grand Challenge helped Heelium expand

#Discussion(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Does cross border incubation help?

The K-Startup Experience helped accelerate into the Asian market

The founders had friends who’ve lived in Korea and advised them to seriously consider Korea as a place to expand their R&D and operations. The K-Startup Grand Challenge was a great opportunity to collaborate with some of the biggest technology companies, accelerate their growth as well as access the market in East Asia which Korea’s location would enable“

Korea is a very interesting place for us owing to its market being so different from the Indian market. The consumer is not as price sensitive as in India and the new technology adoption is significantly faster. This programme helped us get key insights into how to adapt to different markets with the same or similar products,” says Prateek.

Benefits of the challenge

Through the programme, they formed some important partnerships in the footwear manufacturing business in Korea and also in Vietnam, which is a global manufacturing hub. This helped them explore growth opportunities outside of India which would otherwise have been a challenge. They’ve also been able to explore a more mature market with higher per capita income and tweak their product to fit the market.

The biggest transformation after the challenge was working with a multi-national team. This has expanded their outlook and they are now looking at other geographies outside India as potential markets. The startup already has clients in Korea, Vietnam, UK and US who are keen to distribute Heelium products in their regions.

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