On the 11^th of November in balmy Singapore, we attended the Slingshot 2019 Pitching Competition; Asia’s most exciting deep-tech startup competition, championing new-to-market innovative technology and business ideas.

As a part of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and Singapore Week of Technology (SWITCH), this huge pitch event seemed like a mere drop in the ocean that was SFF x SWITCH with over 60,000 participants in the Singapore EXPO.

The Competition

Slingshot profiles and showcases the maturing startup ecosystem and in its 3^rd year, the sheer growth of the competition has been impressive with 2,400 entries (8x the applications from last year) from over 120 countries. A growth that is unsurprising however, when you learn about the $2Million prize pool.

100 startups from around the world took the stage to deliver a 2-minute pitch followed by 2 minutes of questions from the judging panel who were made up of Venture Capitalists, corporates, and industry representatives of accelerators and incubators in the startup world.

The entire judging pool was made up of over 200 experts in the sector categories that covered Manufacturing, Logistics and Transport, FinTech and InsurTech, FoodTech and AgriTech, Urban Solutions and Sustainability (which had the biggest amount of entries).

The Top 12

Bambu – An intelligent platform that helps users save and invest for their future.

Breathonix – A non-invasive breath tests for early detection of diseases.

CredoLab – Customised digital credit scores.

Datature Analytics – Enterprise-grade image recognition model using AI with no need for coding.

EcoWorth Tech – Waste-to-worth solutions for removal an recuperation of valuable organic materials from waste(water) including a breakthrough oil/chemical spill absorbency prototype for oil recuperation.

Eko.ai – Automation software that fights against heart disease by turning a 30 minute process done by doctors into one click.

Grower Agritech – Modular Smart Grow Stations allowing crops like truffles and mushrooms to be grown within major cities, on-demand, 24/7.

ible Technology – A wearable air purifier which can reduce PM2.5, pollen & allergens around you.

Nucane Life: The Sugar Solution – A revolutionary natural sugar based sugar reduction and replacement innovation.

Ubudu SAS – An end-to-end Location Tracking & Analytics solution to streamline operations in physical sites.

Wandelbots GmbH – Enables everyone to program & run an industrial robot using wearables & smart teaching devices.

WaveScan Technologies – A radar-based smart sensor systems & AI-enabled predictive maintenance solution for the Built Environment sector towards safer, resilient & sustainable smart cities.

The Winners

Eko.ai walked away with the grand prize of a $200,000SGD StartupSG grant, $200,000SGD investment from FundedHere and 18-months of space and support from JTC Launchpad. They also received an additional prize of $50,000SGD taking their winnings to an astounding $480,000+ AUD.

Competitions like slingshot help contribute to the startup ecosystem by supporting new ideas and solutions that solve industry problems and enhance lives. This year Singapore startups have raised over $9.7Billion in venture capital.

Slingshot 2019 is powered by StartupSG, an initiative of Enterprise Singapore in collaboration with Agorize.

See the winners and all startups involved at StartupSG.