How International Startups Like Silicon Valley’s WooHoo® Accelerate Entry into Asia

Customer acquisition and an effective go-to-market strategy are crucial for any startup, let alone one that has its eyes set on an international market. However, understanding different needs overseas can be hard without sufficient local networks or knowledge.

Take WooHoo^®, for example, which is a Silicon Valley-founded tech startup specialising in AI voice assistants for homes and enterprises. From the outset, WooHoo^® wanted to “strategise [its] growth in markets with plenty of headroom, particularly those in which voice assistants hadn’t been tapped for enterprise”, shares Chief Product Officer Kirti Chandel.
 

WooHoo^® Scales Up at Speed with the GIA

Although WooHoo^® had previously received offers to join other tech incubators, the company was ultimately convinced by Singapore’s commitment to innovation and well-documented trustworthiness. With strong government support and mentorship, it wasn’t long before WooHoo^® saw results from its participation in the DeepTech Accelerator programme.

Working closely with government partners and local industry veterans during the programme allowed WooHoo^® to seamlessly plug into a network of local customers. “The relationships we forged with public sector partners like STB [Singapore Tourism Board] helped us connect with local players to pilot our services,” says Chandel, “we’ve been provided so many marketing and branding opportunities through the programme”.

With access to customers taken care of, WooHoo^® was free to focus on honing its products and services to their fullest potential.

In addition to its highly developed tech infrastructure and talent pool, Singapore’s small size and dense concentration of decision-makers would allow WooHoo^®’s team to efficiently reach out to pilot customers experiencing product issues, unlike in larger countries such as the US where company and client could be in different time zones or on opposite coasts. Singapore’s multilingualism also proved a unique bonus for WooHoo^® as a voice and language-based tech company.

In just two years, WooHoo® successfully established its presence in Singapore and built a client list that includes the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Millennium Hotels and Resorts, Changi Travel Services, and Gardens by the Bay. With WooHoo® and its new partner Sensory Inc., Singapore's hospitality sector is turning “your wish is my command” into a high-tech reality for guests and tourists.
 

Today Singapore, Tomorrow the World

With the advantages offered by Singapore’s connected business ecosystem and the Global Innovation Alliance, Silicon Valley startups increasingly see Singapore as a great place to build, test, and scale products for the Asian market.

On the hospitality front, WooHoo^® is currently running pilots with multiple hotel groups and aims to have a presence in more than 5,000 rooms by the end of 2022. The company has also expanded to the Maldives and partnered with the country’s largest telco Dhiraagu, building upon lessons from the DeepTech Accelerator Programme to broker partnerships in a new market. Further expansions to Macau, Dubai, and the EU are planned, with Singapore set to remain as WooHoo^®’s regional headquarters within Asia-Pacific.

“Singapore truly is the best launchpad to APAC for tech companies based in North America or Europe,” concludes Chandel, “Initiatives like the GIA and the DeepTech Accelerator Programme prime you for success in every way, you just have to be open and ask as many questions as possible”.