The Startup Ramp program of Amazon subsidiary Amazon Web Services is officially expanding to the Southeast Asian region, including the Philippines, to support early-stage startups who are building solutions in agriculture, health, digital government, smart cities, and space technology.
By zeroing in on startups that are building solutions on AWS designed for public sector use, the cloud computing giant is able to offer tools and resources that help these same startups scale and accelerate in their respective industries.
For starter, the Startup Ramp program provides technical design and architecture reviews, mentorship, credits, and support with go-to-market plans that assist startups in navigating complex regulatory and security requirements in the public sector.
This new expansion encompasses customers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Early-stage startups who are yet to meet their first customers are qualified to apply in becoming Startup Ramp Innovators while those already with paying customers can apply to become Startup Ramp Members to get an added bonus of accessing program benefits.
According to AWS APJ regional managing director for worldwide public sector Peter Moore, the pandemic highlighted how crucial digital transformation is to the public sector and revealed the vital role of startups in helping these institutions achieve their missions with speed and scale.
“We are excited to launch AWS Startup Ramp in South Korea and South East Asia where there are incredible opportunities for early-stage companies to solve public sector challenges with innovative solutions. Bringing startups, public sector organizations, and the cloud together allows teams to experiment and test new ideas with technology to more effectively solve citizen problems and be better prepared to respond to disruptive events,” Moore added.
Some of the local startups collaborating with AWS expressed their excitement with program expansion during a virtual presser. These include the Incheon Metropolitan City (IMC) innovation hub, Korea-founded startup CellKey, Singapore-based SpaceAge Labs, and Vietnamese startup Med247.
To apply for the AWS Startup Ramp, companies must first meet the participation criteria before submitting a Startup Ramp Application Request. The program currently supports startups with under $10M in revenue and all qualifying applications will be reviewed and evaluated for participation based on their potential contributions to public sector customers.
