Australian incubator BlueChilli plans expansion to Southeast Asia and US

Melbourne-based tech start-up incubator BlueChilli has announced plans to expand to the United States and Southeast Asia, which will follow the impending opening of its Sydney incubator  this year, reported StartupSmart.

The founder, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, a former Navy officer, said: “Southeast Asia is close to our door and has lots of support from the Singapore Government and other governments, and larger corporates. We want to be part of that.”

He added that a US presence will be established in San Francisco. Both locations will be formally launched simultaneously, and all the incubators will eventually be linked via video-conferencing.

BlueChilli also plans to launch a new start-up every month. In the works is GiggedIN, a site that gives musicians a new way to book gigs, and RenterFixer, a tool for real estate managers to streamline the process of fixing broken appliances or utilities.

Sebastien said that his incubator’s approach is different from other tech businesses. It focuses on getting the business model right before looking at the technological solution, while many start-ups work the other way around.