JFDI.Asia launches Joyful Frog, an innovation campus to nurture elite entrepreneurs in Asia

Block 71 has become Singapore’s Cowork Central. The old industrial building, which is experiencing new life as a tech startup hub, is also playing host to a bunch of coworking spaces that cater to the entrepreneurial crowd.

The latest to join this family is an ‘innovation campus’ called Joyful Frog, a new coworking space just launched by startup accelerator JFDI.Asia — which is currently in the midst of its 100-day startup bootcamp.

While JFDI.Asia did not define the venue, which is slightly larger than a tennis court, as a coworking space per se, it does share many characteristics of one, namely, memberships and a limited number of residences, meeting rooms and ‘lily pads’ for discussions plus a cafe for casual interaction, and entrepreneurial-related events on-site.

Altogether, the various components serve to strengthen and build a particular sort of community (in this case related to startups) — a defining trait that separates coworking spaces from shared offices.

The initiative fits in with JFDI.Asia’s larger goal of training and nurturing elite tech entrepreneurs right here in Asia, rather than seeing talented individuals migrate to Silicon Valley.

Hugh Mason, CEO of JFDI.Asia, indicates that the campus is very much a concept test.

“We now have a community of several thousand around the region who ask us to consider expansion to their countries too if the campus concept succeeds,” he adds.

For now, members of Joyful Frog will get access to unlimited drinks at the cafe, access to meeting rooms, and priority access to programs and seminars. Members of the campus will also become general members of TiE, a global entrepreneurial organization.

The space’s first official individual resident is Hian Goh, founder of the Asian Food Channel and a seed investor in online restaurant booking site Chope, which raised funding from Singapore Press Holdings last week.

Besides the existing Plugin@71 by NUS Enterprise, another one to look out for would be Silicon Straits, a incubator and investment firm started by James Chan, formerly of Neoteny Labs.

Design work is already underway to convert 2,000 sq ft within Block 71 into a coworking space.

Photo: JFDI.Asia

Map of coworking spaces in Singapore