This bitcoin startup is the 1st in Asia to enter the Valley through Boost VC

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem in Singapore has been making great strides. Just a couple of months ago, the Association of Crypto-Currency Enterprises and Startups, Singapore (ACCESS) was formed to represent various bitcoin- and other cryptocurrency-related businesses.

Given the interest in cryptocurrency locally, it probably comes as no surprise that VCs in Silicon Valley would be looking into Singapore as a rising hub – at least it seems so for Yusho Liu, co-founder of bitcoin exchange Coin Supermart. The bitcoin startup was the first ever in Singapore, and even Asia, to be picked by Silicon Valley-based incubator Boost VC. The incubator is also the first incubator in the world – though now, no longer – to focus on accelerating bitcoin companies.

“Coin Supermart is the best company coming out of Singapore, and [that’s why] we picked them,” says Adam Draper, CEO of Boost VC. Under their acceleration program, the Coin Supermart team will undergo 12 weeks of programming, culminating in a demo day event and hopefully funding from investors who Liu claims he meets in the hallways everyday. Liu says:

At this point, we just want to work hard to make sure that we’re ready for demo day roughly about two months from now, which will be attended by at least 200 investors in the Valley.

Coin Supermart was co-founded by Yusho Liu and Gerry Eng, who were buddies in the army. They started the exchange in January this year after realising how difficult it is to obtain bitcoins locally, and their primary objective is to bridge the gap between bitcoin and non-technical users. Liu was coy about sharing the details, and would only say that all would be revealed at demo day.

So far, the duo have been having the experience of their lives in the Valley. Liu says they met many interesting and vital people since day one, when they were hosted by Andrew Ng, the co-founder of Coursera. He adds:

Over at Boost, there are a total of 22 companies co-working in the basement of a block, 24/7. During the program, we have scheduled speakers, mentor sessions and family dinners. The greatest perk about Boost is that teams like us coming all the way from Asia do not have to worry about looking for housing – we live right across the office in a sponsored lodging. Basically […] everything is provided for – all we have to care about is shipping our product for demo day.

 (Image credit: Flickr user Davor Pavelic)