TECH PLANTER(en)

2021 Judges will be coming early next year. Below are the Judges from 2020

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  Dr. Kihoko TokueManaging Director, Leave A Nest Singapore Pte. Ltd.

  profile

  Dr Tokue is the Managing Director of Leave a Nest Singapore and Founder of Leave a Nest Malaysia. She was born in Tokyo but raised in Southeast Asia, studied bachelor degree in America and then moved to Australia for Master and PhD degree carrying out field work. Currently she is creating platform in ASEAN to nurture the next generation innovators, startups involving business development partners from industry. Her dream is to one day bring changes to the world with advancement of science and technology with true understanding and appreciation for nature.

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  Mr. Yoshikazu UeharaManaging Director, Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D Centre, Pte. Ltd.

  profile

  Mitsui Chemicals Inc. is one of the diversified companies in Japan and providing wide variety of chemicals and polymers globally. It will help build a better future society across five business domains, Mobility, Health Care, Food & Packaging, Next Generation Businesses and Basic Materials. Mr Uehara is in charge of new business development from Asia Pacific. He is looking for new business opportunities making best use of open innovation in connection with Mitsui Chemicals' proprietary technologies.

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  Mr. Akitaka Wilhelm FujiiPresident, Real Tech Holdings Co.,Ltd.

  profile

  As President of Real Tech Holdings, Mr. Fujii drives the company’s mission to solve societal and environmental challenges through innovative deep-tech technologies. The company has four venture capital funds under management, with one specifically focusing on South East Asia. Prior to joining Real Tech Holdings, Mr. Fujii worked for EIT Climate-KIC, EU’s largest organization fostering climate innovation. He was involved in setting up several business units, led a company-wide change management program focusing on people management and managed the company’s effort to assess its climate impact. Mr. Fujii holds a Master's degree in International Studies from the University of Tokyo.

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  Mr. Nobuhiro YamamotoDivision Manager of Medical Policy, Corporate Planning Division, ROHTO Pharmaceuticals

  profile

  Mr. Yamamoto joined Rohto Pharmaceutical last year, and mainly focusing on medical product development and commercialization in the field of eye disease and regenerative medicine. He is leading Interstem as CEO, which is developing cultured chondrocyte products for traumatic cartilage deficiency and knee osteoarthritis. Before joining Rohto, he worked for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Japanese Government, Mckinsey and Company, and H.U. holdings (one of the largest clinical laboratory testing service/In Vitro Diagnosis manufacture companies in Japan).

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  Mr. Tsuyoshi Hidaka Manager at Business innovation & DX Strategy Div., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

  profile

  Joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in 2000. He was engaged in sales and business planning for the communication systems business. After working in the Corporate Planning Office and Strategic Business Development Office at the head office, he assumed his current position in April 2020. Currently, he is promoting activities as a leader of company-wide 5G utilization and corporate venturing activities.

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  Mr. Yusuke MiyazakiManager, NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD. Nippon Shokubai – Nanyang Technological University Research Collaboration.

  profile

  Since 1941, Nippon Shokubai has grown up its business with unique catalyst technology and has supplied, for example, ethylene oxide, acrylic acid, automobile catalysts, process catalysts and so on. Among all, its global market share of superabsorbent polymers is the largest in the world now. Its R&D teams are especially focusing on ICT, energy & resources, and life sciences as their new core business. In Singapore, a collaborative research project with Nanyang Technological University started in 2019 to develop new technologies and products. Mr. Miyazaki is a manager of the project, who had been in charge of the bioprocess research and development for a decade when he was in Japan. In addition to his research activity in NTU, he is also looking for new opportunities to collaborate with other companies in new ways based on his biological background.

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  Mr Lee Jin Sheng Deputy Director for Global Innovation Network, ESG

  profile

  Mr. Lee Jin Sheng is the Deputy Director of the Global Innovation Network division at Enterprise Singapore (ESG), the government agency championing enterprise development in Singapore. As part of this mandate, he oversees the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) initiative, which looks at forming international partnerships to broaden the horizons of Singaporean startups and small-medium enterprises looking for market expansion and innovation opportunities

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  Mr Kelvin Ong CEO, Focustech Ventures Pte. Ltd.

  profile

  Kelvin is an entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in precision engineering & technology. He is the CEO of FocusTech Ventures and Partner of TNB Aura, an early stage VC firm focused on Series A investments in Southeast Asia. Kelvin served as the Executive Director of Focus-Tech Holding, leading shareholder of HDD component maker Seksun Group. He currently serves as one of National Research Foundation’s Central Gap Fund Technical Advisors and holds an MBA from Nanyang Technology University.

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  Mr John ChengFounder, Innovate 360

  profile

  John Cheng is the 3rd generation family business owner of a 74- year-old established food company in Singapore. In 2008, he founded Innovate 360, a food innovation hub and Singapore’s first food incubator with facilities. Innovate 360 is recognized by APEC as a food technology partner in food security and by the Singapore government. It is an Accredited Mentor Partner helping startups scale and go to market. John is also chairperson of Feed 9 Billion, which co-launched the Good Food Startup Manual: Singapore Edition. He is entrepreneurship head of SMF’s Youth Committee, and EXCO of SCCCI’s Youth Business Affairs Committee.

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  Mr Justin ChinDirector, Sand Box Connect

  profile

  Justin, from Sand Box Connect has accumulated more than 10 years of experience working with innovative companies around the globe. Within the ecosystem, he has worked with start-ups, corporates, SMEs, IHLs, investors, government agencies, accelerators and trade embassies. Formerly the Head of Partnerships for a deep-tech accelerator in Singapore, he co-ran the programme and spearheaded collaborations between startups and corporates. He personally coached and brought in experts, mentors and panelists to share their industry and domain knowledge to the start-ups. He aims to continue its mission of connecting businesses today to drive breakthroughs for tomorrow.

Below are the Finalists for 2021 Season

• Avatamed

  Next Generation Drug Screening Platform for Precision Oncology Services

• Smartfuture

  White Label Tele-Health Tech Platform for Healthcare Providers to Capture Patient Vitals Remotely.

• Nanofy

  “Net-Positive” for Humanity Through Nanotechnology for the Physical World.

• Seppure

  Sustainable Solvent Recovery and Reuse With Nanofiltration.

• Anteplastics

  A Unique Closed Loop Recycling Technique for Plastic Waste That Enables Recycling to the Original Building Blocks.

• Hydroleap

  Low-Cost, Chemical Free Water Treatment Solutions for Industrial and Construction Waste Water.

• BeeX

  Autonomous Assessment of Underwater Structures.

• Lantheacond Technologies

  New Vacuum Reefer

• CRUST Group

  CRUST SUSTAINABLE UNIQUE LABEL MODEL (SUL)