SparkLabs Connex will immensely support startups working with key market drivers and tech enablers such as eSIMs, 5G monetization, AI, sustainability, low-power wide-area networks, green building initiatives, and security

Fremont, CA: SparkLabs Group, a leading seed-stage VC fund, and startup accelerator has launched SparkLabs Connex, an initiative program focused on smart cities, internet of things, and proptech.

With its new initiative Connex, SparkLabs will immensely support startups working with key market drivers and tech enablers such as eSIMs, 5G monetization, AI, sustainability, low-power wide-area networks, green building initiatives, and security.

The initiative program will run under Charles Reed Anderson, founder of Singapore-based IoT and smart city advisory firm CRA & Associates, who will lead the program as managing partner. He previously led IDC Asia Pacific's mobility and telecoms practices and served as a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company.

In a press statement, Anderson said, "My ambition for SparkLabs Connex is to become the innovation hub for the IoT, smart city and prop-tech ecosystems, and I'm excited with the quality and variety of partnerships we have signed at launch-and will sign in the future. SparkLabs Connex is more than an accelerator, it's an ecosystem play, and we believe it creates a unique value proposition for startups, partners, and investors."

SparkLabs IoT is a global initiative launched in Songdo, a residential and business complex that is considered as the world's first purpose-built smart city by Korea. In Singapore, the program was launched in November 2018 through a partnership with a local investor and venture builder, IncuVest.

SparkLabs has partnered with corporations such as True Digital, Nokia, international smart-city network Go Smart, Urban Technology Alliance, and Skyroam to bolster the Connex program. It is expected to announce more partners shortly.

SparkLabs was founded in 2013 and has invested in over 280 companies across six continents so far, including fintech startup Aire, healthcare firm Docdoc, and beauty ecommerce company Memebox.

Besides Connex and SparkLabs IoT, the group's ecosystem includes agritech- and food tech-focused SparkLabs Cultiv8 in Australia, Seoul-based SparkLabs Korea, innovation-as-a-service platform SparkLabs Foundry, SparkLabs Taipei, and SparkLabs Frontier in the US, among others.

"This is basically an expansion of SparkLabs IoT and creating a better accelerator program with a wider mandate and stronger partnerships," Anderson added. "Now it's not just Songdo, South Korea, but Singapore, Taipei, Darwin, and Australia."

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