If you’ve been following the ideas.inc Business Challenge, the competiton recently announced its Top 15 entries.
I was one of the preliminary judges for the competition, and it seems like none of the business ideas that I rated have made it through. Maybe my standards are too high?
Here’s a summary of the 15 quarter finalists:
4Loop
4Loop intends to enter the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. AM is an umbrella term that refers to a group of technologies that can build physical models, prototypes, patterns, tooling components and even production parts directly from computer data. The product is a new powder based AM technique based on the principles of xerography. The objective is to make simple changes to 2D laser printer so that 3D objects can also be built.
Avetics
Avetics Pte Ltd focuses on building small scale UAVs that are suited for use in the urban environment. Our UAVs incorporate several safety features like smart algorithms and physical design which we believe will greatly lower the adoption barrier. Besides being safe, our UAVs also boast a long battery life and a modularized payload. This modularization makes future upgrades more economical and allows the UAVs to take on different configurations.
Bamboobee
The bamboobee bike project seeks to revolutionize the social enterprise mindset and promote eco-friendliness with an innovative twist to the everyday bicycle – refining its production process to make it environmentally sustainable and using processed natural bamboo as the main component of the bike. We choose bamboo because bamboo is a fast growing and naturally‐occurring strong and versatile raw material and this process alone will reduce all the harmful by‐products that come from the use of metals like aluminum and steel.
Creating Assistive Rehabilitation Enterprise (CARE)
We are the C.A.R.E team (Creating Assistive Rehabilitation Enterprise). Our award-winning assistive innovation – the `Intelligent Walking Frame’, has gained distinguished recognition in major competitions1, proving our innovation to be creatively unique and highly practical for the fast growing ageing population. Our unique business model takes advantage of our specialization – Search Engine Marketing(SEM), that seeks to market websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs), through the use of free traffic globally. We look forward to integrating this into our new business model and hope to collaborate with VWOs and hospitals for branding and as a catalyst into this niche.
EcoEnviro
EcoEnviro is a company that creates green energy using piezoelectric technology. Our first product, PowerTile is where electricity can be harvested by having people walking over these tiles. We are looking at places where there is high human traffic flow to install these tiles. Therefore, we are targeting at government and private organizations, such as SMRT and St. James. We hoped to have experienced techno-preneurs to guide us as mentors so that we can penetrate into the market efficiently with his good business association and his relevant experiences with these organizations. Thank you!”
Energeek
At Energeek, we specialize in electricity usage monitoring. We are currently embarking on a load signature analysis technology that enables instant identification of individual appliances from the main switch. This non-invasive advancement will allows electricity usage monitoring to be completely hassle-free. Energeek invites any opportunities to offer land developers and building owners a more effective and efficient electricity monitoring capability. At the same time, Energeek is also looking for collaboration with government agencies like HDB, BCA, EMA and NEA to work on the prospectus of environmental-friendly premises and promotion of green buildings initiative.
Farmer’s Tale
A strong society is one that is rich not only in material capital but also in social capital. For us at Farmer’s Tale, we hope to increase social capital through promoting volunteerism and donations. We strive to do this by creating a freemium game on Facebook that links virtual rewards with people’s physical and social activities. As a social entrepreneurship business, our goal is to do more good for the society and be sustainable simultaneously.
HippoCampus
HippoCampus is Singapore’s first online social networking site exclusively for undergraduates. It aims to be the leading online resource provider for university students to enable them to navigate through a hectic and stressful academic university life and more importantly to empower them to obtain outstanding academic results. One of our features is our highly innovative web conferencing function, which combines document collaboration with video capabilities, to allow people to have simple online meetings for their projects.
Itineasy
Itineasy is a web-based itinerary planner that makes it effortless for travellers to plan their holiday itineraries, from choosing their destinations and routes to knowing the price of a croissant. Accommodation, transport and even meals can be sorted out in minutes with Itineasy. Itineasy also promotes sharing of itineraries and reviews between users. No two travellers walk the same path, but Itineasy makes sure that they both spend time doing what they enjoy
Little Voice Games
Little Voice Games, by creating a social travel-guide city-building game called Mongster Colony, delivers an innovative means of in-game advertisement and an effective way of marketing that would enhance social game play and users’ experience. The two-way benefit of the game is that players will be able to learn subconsciously real-life information of real places in cities around the world, and advertisers can reach their perfect target market in a novel way that is focused and impactful.
Milaap Social Ventures
As a social enterprise, Milaap enables individuals to make microloans that help the rural poor in India gain access to basic services, such as education, healthcare, electricity, clean water and sanitation. Crowdsourcing allows Milaap to increase the number of people supported and reduce the cost of the loan. Upon completion of the loan period, individuals are returned their loan, which they can keep or give to another borrower. Currently, Milaap has facilitated microloans totaling $40000, across 3 states in India.
Safe N Sounds
Safe N Sounds develops safety and security systems for 2 wheeled machines (e.g. bicycles). The team consist of 5 members. Nicholas (Director), Jeremy (Finances) , Tajuddin(operations), Jia Hao (Marketing) and Charles (Human Resource). One of our products, which can be customised for virtually any kind of bicycle, Is “Rider 360”. It features Daytime Running Lights (DRLs), Tail lights, Direction Indicators, Hazard Warning Lights, plus a wirelessly controlled alarm system to deter bicycle thieves.
SafeMarine
SafeMarine’s mission is to revolutionize the commercial diving ship repair and maintenance industry through the use of safer, highly reliable and more efficient automated robots that can be used for all kinds of underwater ship maintenance services, thereby eliminating the dangers of diver mishaps and provides a more comprehensive hull cleaning and maintenance services. Our main focus is on the East Asian ship repair and maintenance market especially with regards to Singapore, Korea and China.
The Gamer Arsenal
The Gamer Arsenal will be designing and manufacturing high-end, gaming-oriented personal computers (PCs) that will use a mineral oil cooling system. TGA will be aiming for hardcore gamers and parents with high disposable income, offering the complete package of a high-powered CPU (that uses an aesthetically well-designed, two-stage case), monitor and all associated peripherals such a gamer might need. We have plans to sell to the global market immediately, and will patent the design of the sealed, internal oil container.
theGreenTee
theGreenTee want to start a movement of leading an eco-lifestyle, by providing an online platform for crowdsourcing through rewarding designs and participation while using recycled PET bottles as our materials. The 1st movement will be created by user-designed t-shirts and by engaging prominent artists. Contests and events will be held with arts schools and eco clubs to create the community. Our aim is, to start with t-shirts first then venture into overseas market with dresses/shirts by the 2nd year and 3rd year.
