Corporate-innovation firm RISE raises US$8m from Thai conglomerate Metro Co and others

THAILAND-BASED corporate-innovation firm RISE has raised US$8 million from Thai conglomerate Metro Company Limited, Japanese digital advertising and marketing company D2C Inc, and Chanwanich Company Limited, a Thailand-based manufacturer of security printed items (such as passports and bank cheques).

RISE, which was launched in 2016, will use the fresh funds to expand its services to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The company works closely with corporates and government agencies across the region to help them to become more innovative through its corporate accelerator, intrapreneur university, venture-building services and experiential conferences.

Kid Parchariyanon, chief executive and co-founder of RISE, said: "We are a Southeast-Asian-born company with a global vision to disrupt corporates' R&D (research and development) and training landscape with a market size of US$50 billion, by leveraging from our success rooted in Thailand, while localising our service portfolios to each market's need."

RISE said it has a network of more than 400 corporations, 2,000 startups and over 20,000 corporate innovators across the globe.

Wantana Thongthai, chairman of Metro Company, said digital transformation is an important step for the group.

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"We see RISE supporting us in driving our internal innovation faster and stronger by uncovering our new S-curve and exploring our business growth potential," she said.

Keibun Go, the global business alliance head of D2C Inc, said that speed is the key to winning in the game of innovation.

"With the global network of RISE, we strongly trust that RISE is able to connect best-in-class tech startups via its global accelerator programme to collaborate with our internal team in order to accelerate our innovation."