Google's Demo Day Asia debuts in China

Sydney-based freight management firm FreightExchange is one of 10 start-ups selected to pitch to top global investors on 20 September in Shanghai as part of Google’s Demo Day Asia.

Each year, Google sponsors events to gather promising start-ups from around the world to highlight innovative technology and drive investment. The Shanghai event is Google’s first in Asia.

The panel will consist of leaders from Google Entrepreneurs, Sequoia Capital China and Venturra Capital. The top 10 finalists were selected from a field of more than 300 applicants.

“To make the final cut in this Google-sponsored endeavour is an honour. We are in the midst of expanding to South-east Asia so being able to present in this venue is strategic for our company,” said FreightExchange CEO Cate Hull.

A strong showing in Shanghai will translate into company investments and up to US$100,000 in Google Cloud Platform credits. Google said the event “identifies promising companies and it works with them ahead of the Demo Day to give mentoring, coaching and help them perfect a pitch that is delivered to VCs and others from Google’s entrepreneurship network who attend the Demo Day”.

Google said start-ups which have pitched at other Demo Days have raised a cumulative US$259 million from investors.

Other selected start-ups for Google’s Demo Day Asia include Indonesia's DycodeX (which develops Internet of Things solutions for livestock farming), Japan's GITAI (which specialises in building robots that can help humans conduct scientific experiments in space), Thailand's OneStockHome (which offers an e-commerce platform for construction materials) and South Korea's Swingvy (which provides human resources solutions for businesses).