These homegrown innovators are breaking new ground

For technology companies developing innovative digital solutions in Singapore, it is imperative for them to be able to scale up their solutions beyond Singapore, to focus their market presence beyond the republic's boundaries and reach bigger markets overseas. Many solutions can be deployed for the world stage if they are adopted by multinational companies (MNCs) seeking advanced and niche solutions for their digital transformation efforts.

That is what three Singapore firms recently succeeded in, by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to answer real-world technology challenges hosted on the Open Innovation Platform (OIP).

Groundup.ai, Nexus FrontierTech and Sigma Sustainability Institute were matched with MNCs through the OIP, and have seen their capabilities validated and solutions scaled for the world stage.

Since 2018, the OIP has facilitated more than 300 problem statements, with over $8.5m of prize monies and has grown to a pool of more than 11,000 solution providers.

For Groundup.ai, the breakthrough came in 2019, when it participated in an innovation challenge launched by SingEx - a meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) company which has since been renamed Constellar Holdings.

Groundup.ai developed a solution that utilised behavioural analysis and insights generation to create more personalised event experiences, drive meaningful interactions, and encourage longer engagement time for attendees.

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With a high accuracy and the ability to push relevant content to users, Groundup.ai secured a second project for SingEx's next event - a 3-day industrial technology event for the Asia-Pacific region. The solution created by Groundup.ai included real-time recommendations of content and post-event attendee analysis for 20,000 participants.

A year later, Groundup.ai would win another OIP challenge by a global manufacturer. This time, its predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms helped the MNC understand behavioural patterns of customers and predict the likelihood of their orders and order changes.

The solution was designed to help the manufacturer save costs by up to 10 per cent, by reducing unnecessary inventory holdings and warehousing costs. More than 1,300 man-hours were also saved annually with improved efficiency in order management.

The startup has also grown to focus on providing predictive maintenance solutions to solve unplanned downtime for industrial equipment owners and operators, which brought them new opportunities to enter new markets.

Such access to large corporations has boosted Groundup.ai's revenue by 10 per cent between 2020 to 2021 and given it key reference customers. Now, Groundup.ai has taken on bigger jobs beyond bespoke projects, has business presence in six countries and develops AI solutions for diverse sectors ranging from Construction to Oil and Gas.

"We knew we had the capabilities and what it takes to solve tech problems for organisations, but we were lacking a platform to showcase what we can do and to springboard ourselves to the next level," said Mr Leon Lim, Groundup.ai's Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

"Hence, we saw the OIP as an excellent avenue for us," he added. "As a young startup, we're also nimble enough to jump at the opportunity, and ensured that we delivered real value to the clients."

For another homegrown innovation outfit, Nexus FrontierTech, the OIP opened new opportunities to develop more Fintech applications on its AI platform.

Participating in a challenge launched by the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) and asset management firm Schroders in 2021, the startup helped Schroders by creating a smart document parser to make it easier to extract financial information for analysis.

The underlying technology was the homegrown firm's AI-driven industry-specific document parsing platform that could handle and manage variations in document formats used by financial companies.

In just three months, Nexus FrontierTech was able to create a proof-of-concept that could halve man-hours and raise accuracy to 97 per cent.

With this success, the company would be developing an Intelligent Document Automation Hub, providing Schroders with AI-powered processing capabilities that can be used by the various teams globally across Britain and Singapore.

"Innovative technology projects require allowances for uncertainty, where a trial-and-error approach may be needed after setting broad business goals," said Mr Derrick Liao, Nexus FrontierTech's Chief Operating Officer.

"In this regard, IMDA has acted as a true enabler and collaborative partner, supporting Nexus not only as a key connector between businesses and tech providers, but also laying the groundwork for this much-needed openness in any innovative product development process," he noted.

"Schroders has been extremely receptive to this approach, with a focus on clear business goals and a spirit of experimentation that allowed them to reap the benefits of a first-mover in AI adoption," he added.

By bringing access to real business needs as innovation challenges on the platform, the OIP does not just empower technology firms but also traditional businesses that can offer innovative solutions that are pulled through to commercialisation naturally. Through this process, technology solution providers can solidify their credibility, validate their product market fit and subsequently, deliver commercial projects.

Sigma Sustainability Institute, for example, has been providing solutions for facility management for more than 20 years but took on a challenge by a property developer in 2020 to create an asset tagging system to improve operations and maintenance.

The homegrown company came up with a smart facilities management solution that enabled the developer to cut down on automated manual processes, as the sector faced a manpower crunch.

With condition monitoring, the Internet of Things (IoT), predictive analytics, AI and intelligent process automation, the solution enables maintenance to be carried out preventively and as needed, instead of on a regular schedule.

"Because of the shortage of skilled manpower and the transition to super-low-energy buildings, we saw the need for a facility management solution that is smarter and can do more with less," said Chief Executive Officer Hari Gunasingham.

"The OIP challenge gave us the motivation to reimagine the design of our older facilities management software," he noted, of the transformational change.

Having won a big reference customer, the company is looking to sell the software across 20 countries in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. It is also launching in the United States soon.

Indeed, scaling up has been the success that many OIP participants have enjoyed, after deploying an initial proof-of-concept with esteemed organisations, using the technology capabilities they already have.

The OIP, Singapore's national digital innovation platform, helps many homegrown companies level up against global competitors, by not only deepening their competencies but also generating the valuable experience of deploying at scale and delivering value to new reference customers.

Groundup.ai's Mr Lim said participating in the OIP has validated his company's capabilities, gained it bigger customers and boosted its confidence.

"The OIP is a great opportunity for startups like us and is a platform that helps to solve high-impact problems in an organised way," he noted. "Most problem owners from the OIP are also big organisations with multiple pain points and challenges, which can provide startups with more opportunities to work together for other projects," he added.

Start-ups, SMEs and technology providers can look out for the OIP's latest set of challenges, launching in April 2022. Companies can also pose their business challenges and crowdsource for innovative solutions from more than 11, 000 innovative solvers on the OIP.

For more information, visit https://www.openinnovation.sg.