From the left: Ting Yan Leck (Partner, TRIVE), Yi Ming Ng (Partner, TRIVE), Christopher Quek (Managing Partner, TRIVE), JH KIm(Council member of ICON), Jay Kim(Council member of ICON), Henry Hyunil Lee(Head of Global business, ICON)

May 30th, 2018 — ICON announced its strategic partnership with TRIVE (previously known as “TRi5 Ventures”), a Venture Capital firm based in Singapore. The strategic collaboration, first of its kind in the Venture Capital industry in Southeast Asia, is aimed to educate, equip and empower the regional startup and blockchain community.

Leveraging ICON’s technological expertise and TRIVE’s regional network, the two parties will be co-developing ICON focused blockchain courses to be taught through TRIVE’s programming schools, Upcode Academy Singapore, and Coder School Vietnam. As ICON’s strategic partner in Southeast Asia, TRIVE will also provide green lane assessments of startups for expedited access to support from ICON. This would accelerate the development of new blockchain projects from Southeast Asia onto the ICON network. The overarching goal is to unify various blockchain assets across the region to realise the potential of blockchain for Southeast Asian economies.

“The ICON Foundation’s purpose is to promote and develop new technologies and applications in the fields of open source and decentralized software architectures. The partnership with TRIVE will allow ICON to not only educate the public on blockchain technology, but also expand ICON’s ecosystem and community. Singapore and Vietnam are at the center of blockchain innovation in Southeast Asia, and we are excited to work with TRIVE to further realise the full potential of blockchain in this region.” said JH Kim, Foundation Council Member of ICON.

“TRIVE believes the Venture Capital industry will evolve tremendously. Our strategic partnership with the ICON Foundation will enable us to equip our startups and community with intellectual and relationship capital leveraging the technology and expertise of ICON, one of the largest global blockchain networks. Our mission has always been to create value for startups beyond just providing funding. This strategic partnership further reinforces our mission and helps us be more relevant in the era of the blockchain. We look forward to working closely with ICON to support the blockchain ecosystem in Southeast Asia.” said Yi Ming Ng, Partner at TRIVE.

Development for ICON specific blockchain curriculum for Southeast Asia is already underway and is expected to be available through Upcode Academy Singapore and Coder School Vietnam later this year. Additionally, TRIVE welcomes promising blockchain startups in Southeast Asia to get in touch and explore how they can access the ICON network.