We’re finding the next billion dollar startup at Arena Tokyo (#StartupAsia preview)

Japan is by no means a technological slob. Sure, it may be an isolated archipelago with a unique language, culture, and consumer behavior. But it has its fair share of unicorns – companies which went on to hit the US$1 billion valuation mark.

Rakuten, Japan’s foremost ecommerce company, has a market capitalization of US$17.2 billion. Popular chat app Line is difficult to evaluate because it’s not a public company, but a conservative estimate still pegs it at US$10 billion – though this was before Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp.

We’re hoping we might find the next billion dollar company from our Arena Tokyo startup competition, which will be held at our Startup Asia Tokyo conference and is open to startups around Asia. Japan isn’t the only market of promise – and that explains why venture funds from the country are seeking investment opportunities throughout the region.

Here’s what’s going down: eight growth stage startups from the continent – raising series A and above – will pitch to an audience and a panel of judges. The goal for the startups isn’t just to win the competition, it’s about jumping ahead of the queue to secure investors who might help them grow even faster.

We’ve seen many interesting startups at our past Arenas, like retail point-of-sales startup Bindo, which emerged first in Arena Singapore 2014 and went on to snag US$1.8 million in seed funding, as well as drone SaaS company Garuda Robotics, which won the Arena Jakarta 2013 competition. It not only wowed crowds but also caught the eye of investors. And who can forgot the energetic founder of Astroscale, who won the audience over with his energy and ambitions to rid the world of catastrophic floating space debris?

You must be wondering what are the eight startups that will take the stage at Arena Tokyo, which will happen on September 4 at 4.10pm – day two of the conference.

Well, we aren’t gonna tell you, until the day itself. As usual, do check out our detailed coverage of the conference right here on Tech in Asia.

But it’s always better to be there in person, so do register if you haven’t. We’ll see you there!

9月3日と4日にスタートアップアジア東京を開催します！割引コード を使ってみて下さい

Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 is on Sep 3 and 4. Unlock secret level using code .