500 Startups takes ‘Geeks on a Plane’ tour to exciting Southeast Asia

Asia’s startup scene is booming.

A large contributor to this boom is Southeast Asia’s rise as an exciting region for tech startups due to an increase in internet and smartphone access, among other factors, and a budding presence of local accelerators.

Noticing this, Western accelerators are keen to get in on the action. Leading the way is none other than 500 Startups, the ever impressive and expanding seed accelerator, who is taking their ‘Geeks on a Plane‘ (or GOAP) tour to the region.

GOAP is an invite-only tour designed to connect startups and investors while teaching both parties about the local markets and trends of the cities they visit.

According to The Next Web, the estimated price of the tour is a hefty US$8 000 to US$10 000. It’s no small fee, but given that GOAP attracts an array of international visitors – especially from the US and Europe – learning about local platforms, gaining market insights, not to mention the tantalising networking opportunities, could well make the price a worthwhile “investment”.

GOAP just finished up in India and after Southeast Asia it is heading to the Middle East later this year (unconfirmed, but potentially in August) as well as to Latin America in November.

Taking these destinations into account, as well as 500 Statups’ recent launch of their Beijing outpost, it’s evident that head Dave McClure wants to cement 500 Startups as the seed accelerator linking emerging markets to the west. Now we just have to wait for the company to join us in Africa.

GOAP Southeast Asia 2013 kicks off on 1 June and will make stops in Singapore, Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia, Bangkok in Thailand and Jakarta in Indonesia, ending on 15 June.

To apply for any GOAP tours of 2013 click you can go here.

To get an idea of what GOAP is about, watch the video below from the tour of Asia 2011 where it visited Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Image: Mandala Travel (via Flickr)