The Founder Institute, a Silicon Valley-based technology start-up acceleration business, is expanding into Thailand through a partnership with Australian firm Effective Measure. Noting the potential of entrepreneurship and technology development in the Kingdom, the companies plan to nurture the growth of small, tech-savvy start-ups so they can reach wider markets and perhaps go global.

Created by a group of entrepreneurs in the United States, the Founder Institute’s mission is to spread the innovation of Silicon Valley around the globe by nurturing local start-up ecosystems in promising markets. The Institute has expanded to six locations across Southeast Asia, and has launched 140 companies in the region since 2010.

The Institute will conduct four-month programs that allow entrepreneurs to ‘learn by doing.’ They are guided to launch a technology company through structured training courses, practical business-building assignments, and expert feedback from a large network of business mentors.

Thailand’s government is fostering a transformation from an economy focused on manufacturing and assembling to a creative economy where knowledge and innovation are the keys to sustainable growth. The Kingdom does not yet have a global reputation for high-tech development, but it has been quietly building a vibrant community of technology startups that have been gaining attention from global investors.

In September, e27, a tech startup e-magazine hosted the second Echelon Ignite, a conference and workshop where hundreds of large and small Thai firms and entrepreneurs displayed the apps, programs and devices they are developing. The conference drew investors, including institutional investors, from the United States, Japan, South Korea and Europe.

“Thailand is displaying all the hallmarks of emerging as a regional trailblazer in the creation of start-up ventures,” said Charle Charoenphan, one of three technology entrepreneurs who will be leading the Founder Institute’s Thailand chapter, and a founder of Hubba, the county’s first ‘co-working community’ for start ups.

“A significant influx of foreign venture capital has been streaming into the region over the last few months, which major funding-incubator programs are leveraging. The Founder Institute can play a vital role at the earliest stage of company development, in order to prepare founders to build enduring companies, using Silicon Valley best practices and working with the best of breed solutions providers such as Effective Measure that can help the burgeoning tech start-up sector get its metrics right from the ground up,” he said.

Effective Measure is providing members of the Founder Institute’s new chapter with free access to its brand and audience digital measurement and analytics software.