The Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Demo Day returned once again! This year, it drew over 220 attendees and featured startups from a variety of sectors. Prior to the big day, six startups were shortlisted to undergo a rigorous period of testing and validating, receive guidance from industry mentors and had to work extremely hard to turn their startup idea from paper to reality. Finally, they were ready to pitch for a chance to win up to US$10,000 worth of prizes!
The Demo Day kicked off with opening addresses by Professor Robbie Goh, SUSS Provost, and Dr Derek Wang, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Singapore.
Opening speeches by Professor Robbie Goh, SUSS Provost (left) and Dr Derek Wang (General Manager, Alibaba Cloud Singapore) (right).
It featured an insightful panel discussion by a number of industry players in the Sustainability scene, as they talked about how startups can leverage developing technologies to improve their impact on the environment.
Panellist Michelle Ng, Head of Environmental, Social & Governance, Quest Ventures, expressed, “Tech is important for replicability and scalability. Sustainability in that is equally important, and we are glad to see SUSS work on developing entrepreneurs in the service of society.”
Panel discussion with industry players in the Sustainability scene. (in clockwise direction) Clinton Li, SUSS Marketing Student and Moderator of the Panel Discussion; Michelle Ng, Head, Environmental, Social & Governance, Quest Ventures; Faye Tan, Business Development Advisor, Alibaba Cloud Singapore; Christina Lee, Founder and CEO, Global Green Connect; and Joyce Tay, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, StartupX.
Congratulations to Rhine, the champion of Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Demo Day 2022! Rhine provides a social discovery platform to access lifestyle services and encourage an online-to-offline experience. They aim to not only increase customer engagement for businesses through loyalty programs, but also enable businesses to digitalise and reach more customers through promotional campaigns and data analysis of business performance.
Rhine, the champion of the Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Demo Day 2022.
Frederick Chng Yu Tao, co-founder of Rhine and participant of the Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Demo Day 2022, shared, “It was indeed a tough fight as there were many impressive startups. Rhine is humbled to have won in the Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Demo Day 2022 and we would like to thank all participants and judges for their precious time. We appreciate all the support received thus far and we strive to continue forging ahead.”
Roofresh claims the second spot at the Demo Day!
In second place, taking home $5,000 worth of prizes, is Roofresh, which focuses on the digitisation of smallholder farms through leasing of AI equipment and building a full agricultural supply chain.
Proccoli bagged the third place at the Demo Day 2022.
The third place went to Proccoli, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for the facilities management industry that helps clients to manage escalating operating costs and service quality through a digital ecosystem.
GoBike, KOLI and ShareCart were similarly strong contenders in the Demo Day and had benefitted from the valuable feedback and questions posed by the judges.
Steven Lim, Founder of RSTN, was impressed by the startups this year, “It was a great event by SUSS to help budding entrepreneurs go after their dreams. I enjoyed poking some holes into most of their ideas and challenging them to look at different aspects of their business propositions, ranging from sustainability, viability to practicality.”
Judges at the Demo Day. (in clockwise direction) Steven Lim, Founder, RSTQ Consulting; Mikael Krogh, Managing Partner and Founder, Investigate VC; Cynthia Ding, Founding Partner, Yincubator; Faye Tan, Business Development Advisor, Alibaba Cloud Singapore; and Michelle Ng, Head, Environmental, Social & Governance, Quest Ventures.
The Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme is an incubation programme targeted at startups with an early prototype and traction that helps to bring out the best in budding startups through mentorship, networks and resources.