Y Combinator casts its eye towards Asia and what that means for you

Kevin Hale, partner at Y Combinator speaks at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2014.

Startups which follow Y Combinator know there are two big deadlines coming up. This weekend is demo day for Tech in Asia and 113 other startups in the current winter batch. Looking to join the summer batch? You’ve got until March 27 to apply. Asian startups – this means you too. (Editor’s note: Y Combinator is an investor in Tech in Asia. Please see our Statement of Ethics for more details.)

Right now Tech in Asia is one of just four Asia-based startups in the program. 4 out of 113 – it is a skewed ratio and one that Y Combinator wants to change. Though Kevin Hale, founder of Wufoo and partner at the firm, has said that the firm’s landmark Startup School is going to land in Asia this year, Y Combinator is not stopping there. Rather, it hopes that Asian founders will also be willing to apply to its accelerator.

“Y Combinator doesn’t look for or favor any industry, market or vertical. What we love about Asia is that there are smart and hard working founders there, and based on the numbers, there are probably more there than anywhere else on Earth,” says Hale.

Silicon Valley is far away and some startups might balk at leaving their home markets for the three-month program, but Y Combinator’s track record is hard to ignore. Y Combinator graduates have raised over US$3 billion in funding and have a collective market cap that exceeds US$30 billion. Age is no question – the average founder is 30 years old, though the accelerator has accepted founders as young as 20 and as old as 66.

It’s still a bit early to know how current Y Combinator companies like Hong Kong’s Slack-Hipchat hybrid Team Note will fare. But graduates like Korean beauty product box service Memebox show the Y Combinator team know how to help startups outside of America too.

Memebox just closed a US$17.5 million series B. That came about a month after fellow YC startup AnyPerk, founded by a Japan’s Taro Fukuyama, announced an US$8.5 million series A.

Attention from American investors on Asia is increasing – Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital in India, Fidelity in Japan, and 500 Startups, well, everywhere. And now, Y Combinator is joining the party as well.