Transform and Lift-Off - NUS GRIP Run 6 Lift-Off Day
Watch the event here, or click on each team to watch their individual pitches below!
15 December 2021 – After 3 months of transformative Venture HotHousing, 20 new NUS deep tech ventures lifted off last Thursday at the NUS GRIP Run 6 Lift-Off Day. This run saw an impressive 600+ registered participants — investors and VCs, corporates, government and institutions from 18 countries.
Teams from the fields of engineering, cleantech/sustainability, healthcare, food, infocomm tech, Internet-of-Things, fintech and artificial intelligence presented their technological solutions and business pitch, which had been developed and fine tuned from research-based innovations. The teams have previously pitched to the NUS Investment panel for NUS direct investment of up to $100,000 per start-up.
Are you interested in discussing potential opportunities with these teams? Please reach out to gripventures@nus.edu.sg to be connected to them!
Missed the event? Download the Run 6 Lift-Off Day Teams Booklet and factsheets from our Resources page.
NUS GRIP Run 6 Teams
Click on each team to watch their pitch!
8VERLINK
In the Supply Chain and Logistics industries, the ability to track and monitor conditions during transportation can ensure product quality and safety. However, the majority of businesses have limited or no visibility to shipment conditions – resulting in damages to goods.
8VERLINK aims to accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions in the supply chain industry with our proprietary battery-free wireless sensing solution that provides real-time 24/7 monitoring with maintenance-free operations. 8VERLINK’s battery-free wireless sensor networks can be easily installed on transport vehicles and cargo. The solution can be deployed at a large scale, for granular and precise monitoring of a wide range of parameters. It provides a foundation to gain actionable insights through end-to-end visibility in the supply chain industry.
Aleph
The rapid pace of digital transformation is resulting in myriad models (digital assets) conceived by a variety of software across various departments in a process plant. Soon, the number of digital assets and their native software will significantly outgrow the number of available experts who can manage, maintain, and employ these for routine activities. This gives rise to many dormant and/or obsolete digital assets that play crucial roles in reliable operations. Aleph's smart AI-driven platform keeps digital assets alive and aware by assessing their fidelity and automatically recalibrating them; essentially serving as a single source for enterprise-wide digital assets.
Algno
Harmful algal bloom is a global problem resulting in massive fish death among other problems. Algno developed a game changing solution by removing nutrients from water, which inhibits algae growth for up to 3 months. Algno’s vision is a world with clear lakes, ponds, waterways and aquafarms. Their mission is to become the world’s number one algae control solution provider.
Alpha Electrics
Alpha Electrics is an Electric Mobility Energy start-up that aims to improve the adoption of electric 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers, buggies, and golf carts through its battery-swapping network.
By combining a seamless battery-swap charging technology with long-lasting batteries. The solution will address key issues relating to LEVs, including downtime, range anxiety and battery maintenance.
AquaViolet
AquaViolet provides the next-generation UV-LED disinfection system that can achieve broader disinfection spectrum, 50% higher disinfection effectiveness, 3 times longer lifespan, 3 times lower cost of ownership and 4 times easier maintenance as compared to the existing products in the market. The product can potentially help aquaculture farmers achieving higher survival rate and reduce the operational cost so that they can enjoy a greater profit margin.
ArmasTec™
ArmasTec™ was founded in 2021 by Rainier Natividad and Serene Wong, with the aim to be the leader in comfortable and efficient body-assist apparel. Their product, the state-of-the-art AireLevate™ base suit, is powered by patented fabric-based air-spring technology to assist manual handling activities in the logistics and healthcare segments.
The company plans to launch their product first in Singapore, extending to Australia, Europe and the USA in subsequent years. The first target sector is the logistics industry, including the sub-segments of movers, warehousing, and courier companies.
BAE
Batteries occupy too much space in popular wearables. This space devoted to batteries is the key trade-off that limits product design and features. The ability to send power to wearables via wireless means can improve product form factor design and releases space for better tech and sensors onboard.
Our portable, wireless charging helps manufacturers accommodate higher power demand and maximise uptime for the consumers. Our patent-pending technology leverages tiny receiver and transmitter chips that supply power throughout, even while the devices are in use. By enabling the augmentation and relocation of power sources, we make wearables smaller, more powerful, and more convenient to keep powered.
Casa Medico
Patients faced with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis (OA) conditions experience reduced quality in day-to-day mobility, resulting in a poorer quality of life. Globally, there are more than 650 million patients suffering from knee OA, and this number is only expected to grow.
Many of these patients deal with constant pain, but current direct interventions such as analgesics are short-term solutions with devastating long-term effects. Furthermore, current brace solutions are bulky and uncomfortable, resulting in patient non-compliance. This poses a risk due to poor and uncontrolled management of OA, resulting in the worsening of condition, and hence, reducing quality of life.
Therefore, our solution aims to create a personalised physiotherapy aid, designed to relieve pain, improve mobility and delay the need for surgery for patients suffering from knee OA.
ConcreteAI
Effectively testing concrete strength is critical to keeping construction projects safe and on schedule. However, the current method of indirect concrete cube testing is inaccurate and inefficient. This can saddle projects with cost overruns and schedule delays of up to 10%.
ConcreteAI utilises connected sensors coupled with machine learning algorithms to enable real-time monitoring of concrete strength gain. Concrete strength can also be measured directly within built structures with up to 97% accuracy. Our solution can reduce the need for manual cube testing by 75% and improve construction efficiency by 20%.
Curated Culture
4 in 10 people worldwide suffer from gastrointestinal disorders. Irritable gut can severely disrupt work, life and play. Curated Culture wants to challenge the notion that "healthy living cannot be enjoyable"! With probiotic coffee and probiotic tea, we can indulge in good food without guilt. Each cup provides the daily recommended dose of more than 1 billion CFU of active probiotics, keeping our guts and immunity strong.
Curated Culture’s beverages are ready-to-drink, sugar-free, dairy-free, vegan- and keto-friendly. We combine the age-old tradition of fermentation with deep tech to create enhanced beverages that can improve the well-being of individuals.
CycField
Increasing demands for water treatment efficiency and new regulations with more stringent discharge limits are driving a need for a more effective technology which produces better effluent quality, especially for phosphorus and nitrogen pollutants.
CycField’s new material, CycPowderTM, is a breakthrough adsorbent material that has demonstrated better effectiveness in phosphorous removal from water than any other existing commercially available process. Furthermore, CycPowderTM features a unique regenerable function where sludge disposal is of little concern.
Emacare
The mental demands of modern worklife are causing unprecedented levels of stress in workplaces. Employee stress costs companies millions of dollars, due to decreasing productivity, absenteeism and higher staff turnover. The problem is obvious, but the solution is not.
As a one-stop employee mental wellness management platform, Emacare engages employees in personalised activities such as art therapy, serious games and other wellness activities that are specially designed to promote mental wellness. Emacare utilizes proprietary Emotion AI (EMA) to identify employee mental wellness through tangible and quantifiable metrics, and provide actionable recommendations to both employer and employees to consciously and meaningfully improve collective mental well-being, to build a healthier, more sustainable workplace.
EMERGE
Every year, companies spend up to $2 million on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance and disclosure activities. At the same time, many social enterprises suffer from lack of funding and high procurement costs due to lack of scale.
EMERGE's ESG-driven impact aggregation platform connects suppliers with social enterprises. By integrating ESG and CSR into the procurement processes, the impact of social enterprises are translated directly into suppliers’ ESG performance outputs. With our proprietary ESG assessment, AI impact aggregation and recommendation system, impact measurement and ESG reporting can be streamlined, with up to 4 times improvement in efficiency.
HiveBotics
Current commercial cleaning is heavily reliant on human labour. With an unreliable manpower supply due to absenteeism and rising salary costs, it is a long-standing challenge for hotel housekeeping managers who need cleaning to be done well and fast.
HiveBotics addresses this problem through their all-in-one autonomous bathroom cleaning robot, Abluo, which can automate tasks like toilet bowl cleaning, window/mirror wiping, and even floor cleaning on a single platform. With automation, overall room cleaning turnaround time can be reduced by up to 40%.
In the near future, HiveBotics aims to expand to shopping malls and offices, and eventually, even to our homes!
M.I.Cloud Technologies
M.I.Cloud Technologies aims to improve targeted blood circulation through patented Magnetic Interference Cloud Technology, which uses a unique array of rare earths that emits a spiral force to increase surface free energy of organic matter. It helps to improve the tone of blood vessels and hence, improve blood circulation.
This unique array can be encapsulated inside a small structure, which can be worn any time anywhere. Through embedding in a memory foam pillow, it can help to improve blood circulation and muscle tone in the throat area to open up air passage and improve breathing during sleep.
Marino Solar
Floating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems provide clean energy and offset significant levels of carbon emission, but currently technologies are limited to inland and near-shore water bodies. Existing technologies cannot be deployed in offshore conditions due to the effect of large wave, strong wind and maritime environment which causes corrosion and biofouling.
Marino Solar has developed an offshore floating structure with integrated PV system, which can operate for prolonged periods under challenging maritime conditions, provides efficient and cost-effective power for different offshore applications.
MediVR
MediVR is a leading Singapore-based deep technology company that brings gold standard medical practices to all medical professionals. To deliver this world class training, MediVR works with top medical institutions to create a complete training platform for medical professionals to easily create scenarios and train with.
MediVR’s industry leading artificial intelligence and scenario generation engine creates an experience that contextualises and adapts in real time to unique inputs. Additionally, MediVR leverages on data analytics to provide key insights which will improve performance and training success.
MoneyMoves
Generation Z wants to invest and grow their money but find it difficult to compromise on their existing lifestyle. MoneyMoves enables anyone to make micro-investments through product recommendations of their favourite brands. Our affiliate platform allows users to become an affiliate and earn cashback within 30 seconds based on our instant cashback algorithm. Our algorithm allows us to pay out cashback upon purchase of products compared to traditional platforms with lead time up to a week. In addition, users will be able to generate more returns on their cash backs compared to what would otherwise be left in a bank account, e-wallets or spent on their next purchase.
SensAI
Failure to age actively increases the risk of diseases, fragility and disability. This can negatively affect the well-being of individuals, as well as impact families, health, social and economic systems. While physical activity programmes play a vital role in promoting active ageing by maintaining our body functions, accessibility to these programmes are hindered by physical, logistics and pandemic challenges.
Hence, we developed a one-stop, unified platform that allows individuals to conduct their physical health assessments, receive real-time exercise guidance and track their health status. The platform is delivered through mobile phones, which provide the necessary convenience and accessibility for users to engage in active ageing.
Spotics
Industrial gas leakage is a serious safety and environmental hazard and is a SGD 3.6 billion market. The available solutions are restrictive, slow or too expensive for widespread use. Spotics has developed a compact multi-gas detector that leverages on a new and patented approach to mid-infrared spectrometry. Capable of detecting multiple gases with a single unit, our launch product, the SPOT 3000, is more sensitive, more portable and much more cost-effective. We aim to not only capture a good share of the free-space gas detection market but also expand into environmental monitoring applications in the long run.