With the success of Selangor Accelerator Programme (SAP) year after year, we caught up with each of the startups and get to know how they are doing now.
SAP was first launched in 2018 as a 4-month accelerator for local startups to improve themselves through workshops, practice and mentoring. It comprised a series of classes on topics crucial to entrepreneurship and the growth of local startups. After the selection of the top 10 and top 5 startups for SAP 2019, these startups went for Overseas Study trip to Jakarta, Indonesia to learn about the startup ecosystem in Indonesia and to engage with the community there.
The eye-opening trip saw these startups visiting 6 giant companies that run online businesses and known for their excellent service in Indonesia and South East Asia. The 6 companies are GoJek, Bukalapak, Do-it, Eztable, Connext and Jakarta SmartCity.
After the massive success of the second cohort last year, we can’t help but wonder where are they now. We caught up with these startups and learn what they have achieved for the past year, and the answers would encourage others to start their startups too!
ERTH
E-waste Recycling Through Heroes (ERTH) is a service that provides free on-demand pickup of electronic waste and pays a portion of the recycling revenue to consumers and businesses to encourage a higher recycling rate. The company was selected among the Top 3 Social Innovations in Malaysia 2019 by Alipay-NUS.
Other than receiving a grant from Alipay, ERTH has been busy ranking up awards namely Best Environmental Impact SME Award, UN International Youth Conference Award, Alipay-NUS Social Innovation Challenge Top 3 Malaysia and UN STI Forum for Sustainable Innovation 2020.
Petotum
Petotum is an impact-driven pet tech startup that created pet care management system for pet care businesses, and they believe in an ecosystem that improves animal welfare – creating big impact one paw at a time.
The startup won a Skim Usahawan Permulaan Bumiputera (SUPERB) grant worth RM500,000 from Teraju, an agency under Ministry of Economic Affairs and a RM10,000 grant from Pitch@Selangor.
Engage Blink
The startup helps SME Retail Businesses to reduce marketing budget while increasing sales by recognizing and motivating existing customers to visit and spend more. They enable merchants to re-target in-store customers by re-engaging them with personalized rewards based on their offline analytics.
Their innovative idea leads them to the funding of RM200,000 by Angel Investment, and at the same time, they are in Coach & Grow Programme Batch 5. Recently this year, they were selected in Top 50 of Business Startup Support Centre (BSCC) under Startup Wheel competition. The competition is now the largest and most prestigious annual startup competition in Vietnam for young generations who are passionate about startups.
Carpit
Carpit is an app that helps car owners find trusted tyre shops nearby to buy tyres at transparent prices. Carpit makes it easy to service cars and tyres, ultimately improving cars and road safety.
The startup was selected in Top 30 companies in ScaleUp Malaysia recently.
GoLog
GOLOG is a comprehensive smart online logistic platform that specially designed for a business owner (B2B, B2B2C) to transform ways of managing delivery from traditional to digital and hands-off delivery burden, cost, time and labour.
Their hard work paid off when they received CIP300 grant from Cradle and RM200,000 grant by ScaleUp Malaysia. They were in Top 10 ScaleUp Malaysia along with being Top 10 finalist of Create@Alibaba Cloud startup contest.
Life Origin
Life Origin is a social enterprise that aims to impact the environment positively. They produce environmentally sustainable protein using food waste and disposable media. Black Soldier Flies has become an alternative protein source for fish and poultry market. The production is a zero-waste cycle and done in a controlled and contained manner to ensure the quality products and operation sustainability.
With their rapid growth, this startup managed to receive WatchTower &Friends accelerator fund, along with product development grant from Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC). They were also selected in the Coach & Grow Programme Batch 5. They came in as a National finalist for Generation Impact Fellowship, 1st Runner-up in MTDC Road2Growth 2019, top 3 finalists in Youth Co:Lab Summit, top 12 finalists in Tech Planner Malaysia 2019, top 5 finalists in Accelerate 2030 and 1st Runner-up in Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Malaysia 2019.
NEXPlatform
NEXPlatform is a Data-Driven Property Technology company that provides smart real estate solution to help property developers to increase sales conversion and improve customer experience. Their customer experience-driven platform helps their clients to capture, distribute and unify their data from all channels with automation to enable them to sell better, smarter and faster.
As of last year, this startup has managed to raise US$189,973 (RM775,000) from Cradle investment programme, Direct Equity 800 (DEQ800) led by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd.
SlingApp
SlingApp is a job-hunting application that instantly connects job seekers to jobs nearby. Applicants can quickly swipe right to apply for jobs and get interviews on the app once they match job requirements. For recruiters, on the other hand, SlingApp makes hiring more efficient by reducing screening time up to 70% through the use of Auto-Interviu™ feature, as well as, giving access to a pool of talent on a single platform.
The startup has been keeping themselves busy by picking up awards such as Best Staffing Recruitment Firm (Bronze) and Best Mid-Management Recruitment Firm (Gold) by HR Vendor of the Year 2019. Through Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) eRezeki programme, they were allocated a grant of RM50,000.
CheQQme
CheQQme is an action-based (call-to-action) mobile marketing platform that uses gamification as a marketing tool to bring online customers to offline. Their focus is to bring much-needed traffic for retailers that desire to engage and understand their users better. With this marketing tool concept, they help brick-and-mortar stores by gaining more exposure and increases their market value and sales.
Their out-of-the-box idea leads to CIP500 grand by Cradle and US$200,000 (RM840,210) funding by an Angel Investor. Picking up multiple awards have come naturally to them to as they won 1st Place in Entrepreneurship Innovation Competition of Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival 2018 and was a finalist for Entrepreneur Colosseum, TEC PUMM. CheQQme were also shortlisted for Founder of the Year (Lee Wei Chee) and Best Digital Marketing Solution at ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2018.
Programmes under SITEC include the Selangor Accelerator Programme and Pitch@Selangor are designed to help local startups to accelerate their business further. SITEC also provides training and education from industry experts and professional trainers.