Singapore announces winners for Techblazer Awards 2021

Source: SGTech. Minister Teo (centre) at the TechBlazer Awards 2021.

Fourteen organisations have been recognised as Singapore’s most innovative at the Techblazer Awards 2021, jointly organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and SGTech.

Now in its fourth year, the Techblazer Awards is the nation’s highest accolade for tech innovation. The 2021 awards saw more than 440 nominations, up from 403 submissions in 2020*.

Ten organisations and four student teams emerged as winners in three categories – Most Promising Innovation, Best Adoption and Student Techblazer. Following strong interest in 2020, a new non-governmental organisation (NGO) subcategory for Best Adoption was added to recognise the digital transformation efforts of local NGOs, with Ren Ci Hospital emerging as the inaugural winner.

The winners leveraged frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT), advanced manufacturing and virtual reality (VR). Healthtech company EyRIS, for instance, clinched the Gold award in the Most Promising Innovation category for an AI-powered deep learning system that accurately detects eye diseases, and helps prevent potential blindness through early diagnosis. Its solution has been able to speed up the diagnosis process from an average of 30 minutes to 8.5 minutes.

Meanwhile, students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and a joint team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) both won Gold awards in the Student Techblazer category. The team from NTU built DementiCare, an app that integrates a suite of online tools as well as IoT sensors, to make it easier for caregivers to care for dementia patients.

The joint NUS-SUTD team leveraged gamification and AI to create an innovative digital soft skills portfolio, Skilio, that aims to help the youth develop and showcase their soft skills in future job applications.

The ONG&ONG Group, which won the Best Adoption (SME) category, demonstrated the impact of digitalisation on its bottom line. By moving its internal IT processes to a cloud service provider, it achieved 40% savings in IT infrastructure costs, and up to 90% productivity gains since switching to a digital design process.

As SGTech celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, the association is acutely aware of the focus by members to ensure a strong pipeline of talent in the tech sector in Singapore. To this end, the SGTech SEC Prizes are additional cash prizes for winners of the Student Techblazer category, supported by companies from SGTech’s Singapore Enterprise Chapter (SEC). These prizes are in recognition of the potential of future trailblazers, as well as their digital transformation efforts, and aim to encourage the development of younger talent.

Wong Wai Meng, SGTech Chair, added: “It is heartening to see different stakeholders within the industry advocating for the growth of tech entrepreneurs and young tech talent. The strong industry support, while acting as an amplifier for the Government’s initiatives, is also an engine to create a nurturing tech ecosystem for SMEs and innovative startups.

"SGTech’s partnership with Oracle is one such example that will award US$30,000 worth of Oracle Cloud credits to 40 participating companies of the Techblazer Award, as part of Oracle’s earlier announcement to support startups. We thank Oracle for the generous support.”

The innovation demonstrated by the winners underscores the continued growth of Singapore’s technology sector. IMDA is committed to supporting the growth of tech companies and Singapore’s digital innovation ecosystem through its Accreditation@SGD and SG:D Spark programmes.

To date, more than 100 companies have benefited from more than S$800 M in the government and enterprise business opportunities, as well as test-bedding and prototyping resources made available through the two programmes. As a result, Accreditation@SGD and SG:D Spark companies have doubled their revenue and headcount on average during their time in the programme. The companies have also been able to better attract investment, securing more than $450m investments.

Justin Ang, Assistant Chief Executive for Media, Innovation, Communications & Marketing, IMDA said, “IMDA has been developing Singapore’s tech ecosystem to grow the next wave of companies and support the development of world-class tech products. Through the Techblazer Awards, we are pleased to see more promising startups and innovation coming up through the industry. With a holistic suite of innovation programmes, we are committed to supporting tech companies at all stages of growth by connecting them with potential demand and in developing new capabilities.”

In her speech at the Techblazer Awards ceremony Mrs Josephine Teo, Singapore Minister for Communications and Information said: "The spirit of innovation thrives in Singapore, undampened by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. One evidence of this is that, remarkably, IMDA and SGTech received more than 440 nominations - the highest in a single year since the awards started in 2018. Maybe there were fewer distractions. I’m hopeful, however, that it is more likely a reflection of our maturing tech landscape and vibrant ecosystem."

Minister Teo also profiled WIZ.AI, a finalist for the Most Promising Innovation Award. The company's Virtual AI Talkbot solution both speaks like a human and understands speech in Asian languages, including emotions and tone of voice, to the point where people are unable to tell that they are speaking to a non-human.

"We certainly hope that this turns out to be a gamechanger for businesses across different industries. For example, for healthcare clients, the Talkbot proactively reaches out to patients, to remind them of their appointments. This has led to greater customer satisfaction and overall, higher standards of care among patients, while enabling clinics and hospitals to save costs quite significantly too," she noted.

"Along WIZ.AI’s journey as a company, IMDA was able to provide useful support. One big problem for all new innovations is customer acceptance. And the first few customers are the hardest – many prefer not to be guinea pigs, and to let others take the risks first. IMDA helped by connecting WIZ.AI to potential customers in key sectors such as government, finance and healthcare, to create what the industry calls 'lead demand'. Once there is a lead customer, there is confidence among others to follow. This was done through the Accreditation@SGD and SGD Spark programmes."

Minister Teo further profiled Ackcio, another Most Promising Innovation Award finalist which is supported by Accreditation@SGD. The company's Ackcio Beam system transmits and monitors data in real-time from construction and mining sites, and has been used by the Taipei Metro to monitor the ground and structure at the construction site for Xinzhuang MRT Station. 

Minister Teo noted that the two programmes have benefited more than 100 tech companies in seven years, enabling them to double their revenues and headcounts on average while also stimulating investor interest. 

"In terms of capital investment, more than S$450 M of new growth capital was attracted to these companies since they joined the programmes. With more resources, they can expand their talent pool and build new capabilities to improve on the innovations that had originally brought them the attention. We hope that this helps to create a virtuous cycle of growth," she said.

Minister Teo also called on innovators to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of people. "By all means, help to improve efficiency and reduce costs. But always keep in mind, the end users of your innovations, the people affected by them, be they workers, customers or suppliers. They are counting on you. In medicine, doctors save lives and they are exhorted to do no harm. Quite often, tech innovators protect and help people, and save businesses. Hence, technology innovators should aspire likewise - to do no harm," she said.

*2020: 403 submissions; 2019: 304 submissions.