17 September, Petaling Jaya – The 5th Cohort of the Selangor Accelerator Programme (SAP) 2022 presented Top Five winners with a collective cash prize worth RM50,000 during its Demo Day held today in a hotel here.
The Top Five winners are:
- Entomal
- Swipey
- Diet Ideas
- BlueDuck
- Capsphere
The Selangor State Executive Councillor for Industry and Trade, Dato’ Teng Chang Khim in his opening speech shared that he is aware that startups are often faced with various challenges not only in getting funds, but to boost the marketing and sales of the products or services, lack of necessary guidance, and the ability to convince the public of their solutions’ credibility.
“Therefore, in order to enable local startups to develop their skills while also creating an unequalled network that supports the economic growth of the Selangor state, I believe Sidec is here to empower these individuals by organising talent-nurturing programmes like the SAP,” added Teng.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec), Yong Kai Ping, the SAP is presided over by a panel of judges who contribute 70% of the judging score while the remaining 30% of the scores are derived from the startups’ performance and attendance throughout the three-month programme.
“In this programme, we aim to assist the participants in polishing their products and businesses, as well as their core teams through classes and mentors that were assigned to share their knowledge, experience and advice that would help the participants with their soft skills and pitching styles,” said Yong.
After an eventful day of final pitches by the Top 20 startups for SAP 2022, the Top Five winners bagged the cash prize of RM10,000 each and AWS credits worth USD5,000. These winners also stand a chance to pitch for investment opportunities with some of SAP 2022’s strategic partners.
Themed “Net Zero, Sustainable & Circular Economy”, the SAP 2022 received a total of 225 applications surpassing last year’s record by 36.4% (year 2021: 165) largely from five main verticals, namely Agritech, Greentech, Smart City, Fintech and the newly introduced Healthtech.
The Top 30 shortlisted startups underwent a series of workshops, pitching clinics and mentoring sessions, as well as one closed-door semi-final pitching session where the Top 20 were selected and announced on 5th September 2022.
The 5th Cohort of the Selangor Accelerator Programme (SAP) 2022 was mainly sponsored by Affin Bank Berhad. The programme this year also received great support from strategic partners namely Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad, Microsoft, The Hive Southeast Asia, Tuas Capital Partners, Agrobank and RHL Ventures, with the support from Amazon Web Services, TusStar, MRANTI, Cradle, MDEC, Mystartr, Biztory, Worq, Common Ground, Rtist, Youbeli, Mices Tech, NexMind AI, Beamstart, iTrain, Startup Mamak and Exabytes.