LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Upstream's CEO, Marco Veremis, joined a line-up of prominent business figures at Startup Grind Europe, in London on June 15th 2016. Startup Grind, with the support of Google for Entrepreneurs, brought together over 750 entrepreneurs and industry experts from around the world to educate, inspire and connect the vibrant startup community.
Upstream, a leading mobile commerce accelerator in high growth markets, joined over 30 world-class founders and investors on stage to showcase its mobile commerce platform and offered insights to attendees on how startups can approach the digital revenue opportunities within emerging markets, using mobile devices.
The Startup Grind Europe event featured an agenda of leading spokespeople including Eric Schmit, Chairman of Alphabet, Niklas Zennström, Co-founder of Skype, and CEO of Atomico, Dhiraj Mukherjee, Co-founder of Shazam and William Shu, Co-founder and CEO of Deliveroo. Attendees also heard presentations from leading venture capital firms including Accel partners, Salesforce Ventures and Deutsche Bank Labs.
Veremis was invited to lead a breakout session during the event, which aimed to provide the community of entrepreneurs with a greater understanding of how they can deliver business growth. “The world is not flat: How to seize the $70 billion digital opportunity in emerging markets”, chaired by Jeremy Kahn, technology editor at Bloomberg, saw Marco share insights into Upstream’s latest research, 2016 Developing Markets Mobile Commerce Report.
During the discussion, Veremis outlined the need for businesses to step away from a Western approach for the mobile-first markets. He also addressed why delivering localised, affordable and accessible content is fundamental to successfully engaging the 87% of consumers that are willing to pay for services via their mobile devices, and how they should go about achieving this
Marco Veremis, CEO and Co-founder of Upstream, commented: “The Startup Grind community has innovation at its heart and offers a valuable platform to bring global entrepreneurs together to drive business growth. There is an enticing $70 billion digital opportunity on offer in high growth markets, which the startup community should not ignore. We know that a one-size-fits-all approach is not going to deliver success for these businesses. Understanding how to adapt and create a relevant offering will be critical if the consumers they are trying to reach are going to access services effectively.”
Startup Grind, powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, is the largest independent startup community in the world, made up of 800,000 founders, with monthly events taking place in 200 cities and 85 countries. It offers an opportunity for local founders, innovators, educators and investors to share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building companies.
ENDS
About Upstream
Upstream is accelerating mobile commerce in high growth markets. Our software and infrastructure platform already enables 1.2 billion people to effortlessly receive and pay for the most relevant and affordable digital subscription services on their mobile devices. We have 65 million paying subscribers in 43 countries, making purchases worth $255 million in 2015 alone and growing rapidly.
For mobile operators, we are a strong partner that leverages their unique assets to become key players in the mobile commerce space. For developers, publishers and service providers, we offer fast track access to 43 high growth markets.
