DBS Foundation Grant awardees use tech to tackle financial literacy, detect elderly falling, improve mental health
The bank disburses S$4.5 million to 22 businesses for this year’s edition of its annual programme
CHILDREN and individuals with special needs can earn and spend tokens by completing tasks in a virtual world – this is what social enterprise SpedGrow has developed to help users learn about financial literacy.
This virtual world imitates and gamifies real-life scenarios. Educators can also use the app to issue tasks to users, reward them after completion, and track their financial performance and habits.
Besides the app, SpedGrow has also developed educational toys – such as a block tower – to teach financial literacy.
The social enterprise said: “(They) engage children in hands-on problem-solving, budgeting, and real-world decision-making through activities like supermarket role-play, hawker-centre budgeting and interactive counting games.”
It added that this makes abstract financial concepts “more relatable, engaging and applicable to everyday life”.
SpedGrow was founded in 2022 by Zoe Poh and Yvette Tan, who were teachers at a special-needs institution.
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They noticed that their students did not receive financial literacy education, even though it is critical.
“Traditional financial education programmes often overlook the need for simplified and practical learning experiences that cater to people with diverse cognitive abilities. As a result, many individuals with special needs grow up without the knowledge and skills required to manage their finances effectively, leaving them more vulnerable to financial mismanagement and exploitation,” SpedGrow pointed out.
It is one of three Singapore businesses that were awarded the DBS Foundation Grant.
It will use the grant to refine its toy designs, expand production and distribution across South-east Asia – where high-quality financial education may be limited – and pilot tests with schools, pre-schools and special-education institutions.
Preventing falls and saving lives
Another awardee is SoundEye, which uses technology to detect and prevent falls among the elderly.
Dr Tan Yeow Kee, chief executive and founder of SoundEye, said: “SoundEye leverages artificial intelligence (AI)-powered depth imaging and sound recognition to create a non-intrusive, highly accurate fall-detection system that works autonomously, ensuring that help arrives even when the user is unable to seek assistance.”
SoundEye’s products send alerts in the form of video clips, which can be verified immediately by caregivers, and picks up distress sounds in emergency situations.
These are unlike traditional panic buttons that usually send just an alarm to caregivers, which may thus require them to travel home to see if and what type of help is needed. This can potentially delay medical intervention.
Dr Tan said: “By enabling caregivers to see what actually happened within seconds, we reduce unnecessary distress and effort, ensuring that help is provided when it is genuinely needed.”
The engineer, who was with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research earlier, established SoundEye in 2015 to address the issue of falls among the elderly – particularly those who live alone.
He added: “As Singapore moves towards an ageing society, technology-driven eldercare solutions like SoundEye’s AI-powered monitoring will play a crucial role in reducing caregiver burden, preventing unnecessary hospitalisations and enabling seniors to live independently with confidence and dignity.”
The social enterprise will use the grant for product development and localisation, scaling up production and supply-chain expansion, awareness and adoption initiatives, building a scalable business-to-consumer model, as well as expanding globally.
Dr Tan noted that the grant will be “crucial” in helping it scale its products for home use.
“While SoundEye has successfully deployed Lasso (its fall-detection technology) in hospitals and aged-care facilities (business-to-business), we recognise the growing global demand for fall-detection solutions in individual homes, where seniors are most vulnerable and often lack immediate assistance,” he added.
Improving mental health
Opsis has also been awarded the DBS Foundation Grant. The social enterprise uses its AI-based software to determine a person’s mental well-being by analysing their facial expressions.
Andrew Ow, CEO and co-founder of Opsis, said: “Traditional mental health assessments rely on self-reported questionnaires or in-person clinical evaluations, which can be subjective and require individuals to recognise and articulate their emotions. Opsis’ AI-enabled approach removes these barriers by offering an objective, non-verbal alternative.”
Opsis’ software SenseCare leverages emotion AI technology to enhance mental health screenings.
Ow added: “Our emotion-recognition technology is particularly valuable for individuals who struggle to express emotions due to language barriers, social stigma, lack of self-awareness or the mental disorder itself.”
Despite mental health efforts improving over the years, there is still a “deep-seated bias” in Singapore, he noted. The company was founded in 2017 to address this gap.
“Opsis’ AI-driven app tackles this stigma by offering a self-administered, chatbot-enabled screening option – eliminating the fear of judgment and encouraging more people to seek help early.”
Its software also helps mental health professionals quickly access data-backed insights for screening, and supports early detection efforts.
For example, based on early trials with social service agencies, Opsis’ software cut the time needed to detect mental health concerns from one hour to 15 minutes.
Opsis will use the grant to develop a mobile app to enable mental health screenings, which will improve accessibility. Currently, its product is a PC-installed software.
It aims for the app to be linked to a cloud-based platform, so that professionals can monitor screenings and provide timely support.
“This creates a continuous, closed-loop system that bridges individuals with healthcare providers, ensuring that screenings lead to action and early intervention,” Ow noted.
Providing essential needs
A total of 22 businesses were awarded the DBS Foundation Grant in the programme’s latest edition, with the bank disbursing about S$4.5 million for them to benefit vulnerable communities, it said on Tuesday (Feb 11).
Karen Ngui, head of DBS Foundation and DBS group strategic marketing and communications, said: “We’re committed to supporting these businesses by equipping them with the capital, know-how and acumen to scale and achieve their full potential.”
The grantees, chosen from more than 1,500 applicants from key regional markets including China and Indonesia, provide essential needs and/or foster inclusion through upskilling, employment and other opportunities.
About a quarter of this edition’s grantees focus on tackling the needs of ageing societies, which DBS calls a “key priority” for the foundation.
Since the grant programme’s inception in 2015, the DBS Foundation has disbursed a total of S$21.5 million to some 160 grantees.
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