For the second year in a row, the annual Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Entrepreneurship Demo Day was held online! This year, the virtual event catered for more interaction with guests and startups, with almost 500 participants registering for the event.
Featuring 17 startups, ranging from edu-tech platforms, health foods to a home farming startup, they each had virtual booths, where guests were able to interact with the founders to find out more about their businesses.
Six startups were selected to pitch for a chance to win up to US$10,000 in Alibaba Cloud credits. These startups had undergone a rigorous programme, learning from industry mentors, in order to take their startup idea from paper to reality.
Crunch Cutlery founders, Anna Lam (left) and Sean Neo (right) bagged the top spot at the Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Demo Day 2021
Crowned the new champions – and prize-money winner of US$10,000 – was Crunch Cutlery! Their winning brainchild is an all-in-one edible cutlery cum healthy snack. Made in six different flavours suitable for both sweet and savoury meals, the judges were all in consensus that this innovative product was the undisputed winner of the day.
Co-founder of Crunch Cutlery and SUSS Part-Time Logistics student, Sean Neo, shared the honour of his team’s success, especially in the midst of several other innovative startups, “We are delighted to be given a chance to showcase our products and in turn take another step towards creating a more sustainable environment. Looking forward, we have plans to expand into overseas markets like Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We will also be coming up with the whole range of cutlery choices, such as forks, sporks and stirrers within the next two years!”
Also taking home some prize money on the Demo Day was second-place winner, Kylie Chim from Trally, a peer-to-peer marketplace for virtual travel experiences.
The third place went to Upskill Cycle, an upskilling platform that trains and matches the differently-abled to jobs.
The investors in the judging panel were deeply impressed by the quality of the pitches at this year’s demo day. First-time judge Steve Melhuish, co-founder of PropertyGuru and PlanetRise, said, “It was great to see the passion, innovation and impact of the founders. I wish the founders all the best of luck with their exciting new ventures – hopefully we'll see some sustainability unicorns in future!”
Derek Wang, General Manager of Singapore, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence also shared, “Our future is ultimately in the hands of the youth. As the leaders today, our responsibility is to nurture their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit so they can realise their fullest potential as the leaders of tomorrow. Through platforms like the Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Demo Day, Alibaba Cloud is pleased to be able to provide students with access to experienced industry mentors who can help them succeed and the resources they need to unlock the next stage of growth.”
The Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme is an incubation programme, designed to help students bring out the best in their business.