In late September, organizers of the Tech Factor Challenge in Singapore announced the four grand winners of the third edition, on the theme of “Ageing-in-Place”. The winners presented novel solutions improving the safety, health and mobility of the elderly.
Delivering home care for the elderly through health tech
Organized by ST Electronics in partnership with Spring Singapore and supported by Spring Singapore’s Startup SG Accelerator initiative, the Tech Factor Challenge is an annual competition that spurs innovation through the creative application of technology to solve real-world problems. It aims to give participants the opportunity to translate their ideas into commercially viable prototypes and kick-start their entrepreneurship journey.
Two themes: safety, health and wellness and improving mobility
The participants were tasked to develop technologies that enable home-based and long-term community care for the elderly in two categories:
- Smart H2 (Home and Health) Challenge: applications for safety, health and wellness management.
- Mobility Challenge: improving mobility of the elderly.
Like last year, the organizers chose ageing as the theme this year as a response to Singapore’s transition to a “super-aged nation” and the increasing demand for healthcare services and resources for “ageing well in place”.
300,000 SGD awarded to the teams
The competition awarded a total of SGD300,000 (€187,509; USD220,500) and each team is set to receive SGD25,000 (€15,600; USD18,400), a third of total cash prize. The remaining cash prize will be awarded to the teams upon the successful commercialization of their solutions.
The four winning teams are:
A competition to help promising start-ups enter the market
Winners were selected from ten finalist teams including students, start-ups, engineering enthusiasts and a senior inventor. The prototypes of their products integrates technologies such as companion robots with AI-driven interactions and autonomous navigation capabilities, smart medication dispensers, virtual reality rehabilitative solutions, and smart homes applications.
9 start-ups supported in total
The organizers of the Tech Factor Challenge have also announced that a total of nine startups were incorporated since the start of this edition. Each team has received SGD4,000 (€2,500, USD2,940) in seed funding from ST Electronics, attended an experiential workshop to better understand the challenges faced by the elderly, and participated in workshops and mentoring sessions conducted by industry experts.
Financial, technical and strategic support
Eligible start-ups were awarded up to SGD20,000 (€12,500, USD14,700) of funding support from Spring Singapore to develop their prototypes with professional prototyping companies. Various mentors from high tech companies and Singaporean healthcare organizations, including ST Electronics, Changi General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Alexandra Health System, guided and supported the teams though their innovation process.
Teams also had access to the IMDA Pixel laboratories, dedicated to creating digital content, in order to use tools needed for their prototype development. They also had the opportunity to testbed their solutions at the Smart Aging Design Lab at the Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technology (CHART), located at Changi General Hospital, as well as at SG Enable, an agency dedicated to enabling persons with disabilities.