Deep tech pitching competition a vital launching pad for innovative startups

Pitching competitions are a chance for promising startups to finetune their messages, gain visibility and build strategic connections. 

Deep tech startups received such an opportunity at a pitching competition organised as part of the recent Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH) 2021. The competition, called SLINGSHOT@SWITCH, was in its fifth iteration this year and featured startups in four key sectors: digital technologies, health and wellness, smart cities and sustainability. 

Former SLINGSHOT@SWITCH participants said the event provided valuable exposure to key investors and opened doors to new growth opportunities. The Business Times caught up with three former participants.

Us2.ai

Medtech startup Us2.ai is combating heart disease, the world’s top killer, with artificial intelligence (AI). The company has developed a software which can read echocardiograms - a type of ultrasound scan commonly used to produce images of the heart - consistently and quickly. 

In lieu of a “manual, 30 minute, error-prone process of 250 clicks”, the firm’s software can produce a comprehensive echocardiogram report in about a minute, with no variability, said co-founder Carolyn Lam. 

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“We've seen our platform embraced not only by clinicians eager to save time and focus more on their patients who need extra care, but also by pharmaceutical and medical device companies, for both research purposes, but also to pick up patients who are often missed in current healthcare systems and yet who could benefit from available treatments,” she added.

Lam, the director of the Clinical & Translational Research Office at the National Heart Centre and a Professor of Cardiology at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, co-founded the company in 2017 with her husband James Hare - an investor and co-founder of travel company eDreams - and Yoran Hummel, the founder and former general manager of the Groningen Imaging Core Laboratory of the University Medical Center Groningen.

The company, a spinoff from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), was the grand winner of SLINGSHOT@SWITCH in 2019. 

Lam said SLINGSHOT was a “fantastic opportunity to meet with and be validated by our peers in the industry”.  “The experience was tremendously helpful in obtaining the visibility and validation that soon led to the closing of an important fundraising round,” she added. 

The company raised US$4 million in January 2020 in a funding round co-led by Sequoia India and Singapore investment fund EDBI. The funds were used for product development, team expansion and obtaining regulatory approvals. 

In September 2021, Us2.ai obtained regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its software. The firm also has ongoing commercial and academic research collaborations with partners such as Astrazeneca, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Samsung Medical Center's Heart, Vascular and Stroke Institute, and the University of Alberta.

“Our key goals over the next few quarters are the expansion of our regulatory approvals beyond the FDA, adding even more functionality to our product to further expand the significant lead we have over competition, and to work closely with our distribution partners to ensure the successful introduction of our software into hospital systems worldwide,” said Lam.

Crayon Data

Personalised recommendations generated by an algorithm have become the new normal for consumers shopping online. Big data and AI startup Crayon Data is at the forefront of helping companies improve their marketing and customer targeting efforts, with the data they already have on hand. 

Crayon Data targets lifestyle-related businesses, which includes banks, airlines, retailers and telcos. Companies in these sectors have millions of customers and their transaction data, but often lack the ability to leverage those assets.

The company’s engine crunches data from a client's customer base to generate a personalised “storefront" and taste profile based on the customer's likely preferences. Crayon Data’s clients can then use such a profile to personalise marketing to customers.

The company, founded in 2012, was a digital solutions and consumer products sector finalist at SLINGSHOT 2020. 

The competition was a valuable networking opportunity for Crayon Data. “It gave us great reach in terms of potential clients and deals… It was like speed dating. We were able to meet many people from the industry in a short span of time, which turned into leads that we drove to our pipeline,” said the company’s spokesperson. “Interesting conversations started with prospects in several countries who saw the potential benefits of personalising their offerings for end customers.”

Outside of South-east Asia, the company also has a presence in the Middle East, India and Latin America. 

Naluri

After witnessing the emotional and psychological impact that cancer and diabetes diagnoses had on his father, Azran Osman-Rani decided something had to be done about existing healthcare models which tend to treat mental and physical health separately. 

In 2017, he co-founded Naluri with health systems veteran Jeremy Ting. The company is a digital health services provider that combines behaviour science, data science and digital design to deliver structured health coaching and psychological support for people who are at risk of, or managing, chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or chronic depression, anxiety and stress.

Naluri’s solution won the Corporate Challenge at SLINGSHOT 2020. The company now has about 50,000 end-users and crossed US$1 million in revenue last year. Its solution is available in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and will soon be launched in the Philippines, followed by plans for expansion into Vietnam in the new year. 

“Participation in SLINGSHOT was an incredible opportunity to benefit from dedicated mentorship and world-class knowledge that allowed us to aggressively scale in the region,” said Azran. “The experience was an exhilarating challenge and a chance to fine-tune the pitch process that anyone would benefit from.”

In June 2021, Naluri closed an oversubscribed US$5 million Series A funding round led by Integra Partners. The funds will be used mainly to expand operations in existing markets, as well as deepen the company’s tech and data science capabilities. The company has since also launched a range of app-compatible health monitoring devices that include weighing scales, glucometers and blood pressure monitors.

For more of our SWITCH 2021 coverage: go to bt.sg/switch21