Following an intense three months of training and experimentation, nine startups were selected from DBS’s HotSpot Bootcamp to move on to the next stage – the Pre-Accelerator. The DBS HotSpot Pre-Accelerator is designed to cultivate entrepreneurship in Singapore through experimentation, mentorship and training. DBS HotSpot, in its second edition, attracted over 250 applications from diverse sectors, including finance and digital technology, food and beverage and travel. In addition to those from the start-up community, the programme welcomed social entrepreneurs and aspiring innovators from within DBS itself – the bank encourages its own staff with innovative ideas to take part. Out of these, 29 teams were chosen for the DBS HotSpot Bootcamp before nine were eventually picked for the final segment of the programme. As part of the Pre-Accelerator, the nine teams will receive a SGD 25,000 entrepreneur award, which does not require the teams to give up any equity. This will give them a boost as they continue to focus on product development and sales strategies. They will also receive legal advice and training on skills such as marketing and pitch presentations as they work towards securing funding from the investment community. The nine selected teams are: 
Over the past few months, the mentors in HotSpot had only good things to say about all the start-ups they worked with. But these nine teams really stood out against their peers and had progressed tremendously during Bootcamp. While we would have loved to work with more of the start-ups, competition was tough and we had to be selective of who we could fund for the Pre-Accelerator. It was not an easy decision.
said Neal Cross, DBS’ Chief Innovation Officer.
The teams were chosen based on the clarity of their ideas and concepts, how innovative their idea was and the viability of their business solution. They were selected by DBS executives and partners. DBS HotSpot 2016 Pre-Accelerator will begin in August and culminate in November on Demo Day where the final nine teams will pitch their businesses to a live audience of corporate executives, angel and venture capital investors and accelerators from the region.
In December last year, DBS announced that it would invest S$10 million over the next five years in initiatives aimed at helping homegrown start-ups to thrive. DBS HotSpot 2015 was the first edition of the Accelerator Programme. It saw participation of ten startups: BambooBike, BeMex, Cinch, Codesurance, Nickel, Sumi Technologies, The Fruitfull Company, Travel, InvoiceInterchange, Crux.
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 280 branches across 18 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS has a growing presence in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.
