Asia’s largest startup accelerator group is touching down on U.S. soil for the first time, and wasting no time setting up in the nation’s capital.
SparkLabs Group, a network of accelerators and venture capital funds with programs in Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Oman and Australia, is launching a D.C.-based global accelerator program focused on cybersecurity and blockchain technology.
SparkLabs Cybersecurity + Blockchain will be led by two seasoned entrepreneurs, Brian Park and Mike Bott. Park leads D.C. incubator Fishbowl Labs, has built three companies and is the former COO of Startup Grind, one of the largest entrepreneurial communities in the world. Bott is the former managing director of The Brandery, which was recognized as a top-20 accelerator by TechCrunch under his leadership.
The new accelerator has an impressive list of big names in tech as advisors, including Ray Ozzie, former chief software architect at Microsoft; Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin; Michael Crow, Chairman of In-Q-Tel; Eric Ly, co-founder of LinkedIn; and Rich DeMillo, HP’s first CTO.
Its venture capital partners include Samson Mow, CSO at Blockstream; Andrew Lee, co-founder of Handshake.org; Ryan Selkis, CEO of Messari; and Monique Morrow, former Cisco CTO.
“Within weeks of our agreement, the SparkLabs team brought in an incredible network of advisors and partners that would support this new accelerator and the startups that we will be investing in,” Bott said in a statement. “If you are building the next big thing in cybersecurity or blockchain anywhere in the world, any founder should look at this exciting new accelerator we are launching.”
The two industries are synergetic, Park added, but also immature: “It’s so early within this space that we are only seeing the Friendsters and MySpaces of the blockchain world. The next Facebooks and Twitters will be developed over the next several years.”
Founded in 2013, SparkLabs Group includes the SparkLabs accelerator network, seed-stage fund SparkLabs Global Ventures, early-stage fund SparkLabs Ventures in South Korea, and early-stage blockchain fund SparkChain Capital.
Applications for the accelerator, which is sourcing startups globally, will begin in January 2019. The first classes will follow in March.
