This Hawaii accelerator is helping American startups enter Asia and vice versa

Blue Startups Honolulu team members.

Adding to the list of tropical destinations for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, Blue Startups is a US-based tech accelerator that set up shop in Hawaii two years ago. Although Blue Startups calls Honolulu home, it looks to be the stepping stone for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who want to penetrate emerging markets in Asia and vice versa.

Matt Melloy, Blue Startups’ point man for business development, explains: “Hawaii is culturally and geographically close to Asia – providing [...] opportunity for US entrepreneurs.” Melloy conducts research on the Chinese new venture market in particular, while also cultivating relationships with venture capital firms in East Asia. He is responsible for organizing showcases for Blue Startups’ portfolios across the Pacific Rim in an effort to bring entrepreneurs and investors from different continents closer together. “We take advantage of Hawaii’s unique attributes in the innovation economy, a highly educated workforce, desirable lifestyle, and deep relationships with Asia,” Melloy says.

According to Melloy, Blue Startups invests in scalable companies with a global market focus. It mainly targets web, software, gaming, mobile, and ecommerce ventures. Although after closer inspection of some of its portfolios, one can also conclude that it has a strong emphasis on tangible products and hardware as well.

All companies entering Blue Startups’ program receive up-front seed investment, office space, access to vendor services, and a 13-week program consisting of entrepreneurial training and mentorship. Melloy claims the program also provides business model and product testing, consultation with subject matter experts, introductions to global business contacts, and coaching on how to pitch to investors.

See: These 7 US startups show that your business can survive in China

The sequence culminates in a demo day, during which investors from Hawaii, Asia and the US mainland are invited to see startup pitches. Following the conclusion of the Hawaii program, Blue Startups’ companies go on a one-week trip to Silicon Valley, where they hold an invite-only demo day at the 500 Startups headquarters.

To date, Blue Startups’ portfolios include Gibi Technologies (a collar that tracks the whereabouts of your dog on your smartphone), Flo Water (an environmentally friendly water bottle refilling station) and the international online tea startup Tealet. A couple Blue Startups portfolios that are currently sourcing investors from Asia include Tow Choice (an app for easily summoning a tow truck using smartphone GPS) and Volta Industries, which makes free-to-use recharging stations for electric cars and vehicles (the stations are free-to-use because Volta’s business model cleverly generates revenue via advertising at each station). Ingollow is a community-driven discovery travel app, and Happy Hour Pal is a service that markets happy hour promotions to the right people at the right time.

Of the 600 total applicants so far, Blue Startups has completed three cycles of its program with 23 startup in its Blue Ventures portfolio. It has awarded US$600,000 in seed and additional capital, and Melloy claims its ventures have “attracted” but not yet secured an additional US$6 million of additional investment. He did not mention whether that amount was from Blue Startups or from outside investors. Melloy adds, “Because these companies went through the program at such an early stage, they are fine-tuning their ventures in the domestic market but will be preparing to launch globally very soon.”

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This Hawaii accelerator is helping American startups enter Asia and vice versa