At a kick-off event led by DBS Chief innovation officer Neal Cross and in front of a passionate and supportive audience DBS Hotspot unveiled 11 Singaporean start-ups selected for its pre-accelerator programme at the purpose built BASH facility in Singapore yesterday.

BASH stands for Build Amazing Startups Here, and is an initiative by Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd (IIPL), the investment arm of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). At 25,000 square feet, with facilities such as a prototyping lab, an acceleration zone, a photo and video studio, an incubation space and events area, BASH is Singapore’s biggest all-in-one start-up facility, allowing gatherings of the tech community across the value chain in one place.

The chosen start-ups included, InvoiceInterchange a P2P invoice trading marketplace that works with businesses in resolving cash flow challenges by auctioning their outstanding invoices to investors, Nickel, a mobile app to help migrant workers remit money home via the block chain and Inderr, a platform that matches start-ups to angel investors. There is also a social enterprise approach with two start-ups including BambooBike an enterprise that aims to reduce poverty through the sale of handcrafted bamboo bicycle frames.

DBS Hotspot is a pre-accelerator run by DBS in which 11 teams of tech start-ups, social enterprise start-ups and DBS intrapraneurs undergo intensive training and mentorship at BASH.

Each start-up receives $25,000 seed capital, working space at BASH and coaching from top industry mentors. At the end of the three month programme they get to pitch their ideas to a panel of angel and impact investors, venture capital firms and accelerators.

Speaking at the event Neal Cross commented, “DBS Hotspot is about helping Singaporean start-ups. We are taking great home-grown ideas and helping the teams develop those ideas into enterprises. As a bank we are providing funding, free space and access to some of the best mentors in Asia. The only condition is that they take the opportunity we provide them and make the most of it. We’re looking forward to working with each of the eleven teams over the three months.”