Two student startups were incubated by the Singapore Fund

Announced at the UniVentures – Global Launch Day event on June 25 in Ho Chi Minh City, Selfomy and Volterra won and were supported by Block71 – the innovative startup center of the National University of Singapore (NUS) – to participate in the incubation program. Block71 was born in 2011, has been successful with hundreds of startups and created more than 10 unicorns (valued at over a billion USD).

Selfomy is an AI-based learning platform that helps foreign language centers create new student sources and optimize operating costs. Founded by alumni of the University of London (UK) and Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the startup harnesses the power of AI to improve access to education and create effective learning experiences. The solution currently has more than 5,000 regular users.

Meanwhile, Volterra is developed as a spin-off model (formed from a research project or technology product in a school laboratory) by a team of scientists, students of VinUniversity (VinUni) and a number of businessmen. Project to build multi-level electric vehicle charging infrastructure, grid power, renewable energy and battery storage system (BESS), aiming to promote sustainable transportation and green energy transition. The team aims to convert 30,000 traditional charging stations to green and smart charging station models by 2030, contributing 500 MWh of green electricity, storing 50 MWh of electricity, equivalent to providing electricity to the grid for 80,000 households, as well as contributing 150 million km of travel with green electric energy.

UniVentures is an initiative of Block71 Vietnam, with the companion of Temasek Foundation, aiming to find and support founders from universities in Vietnam, including students, alumni, lecturers and researchers. The program is designed to promote the process of transforming ideas, research results and new technologies into businesses capable of commercialization and expansion.

Launched mid-last year within the framework of innovation cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore, in its first season, UniVentures received nearly 1,500 registration applications from more than 80 universities across the country, and was accompanied by 45 experts, founders, and advisors from Vietnam and Singapore. The program also has a support network from innovation accelerators in Vietnam and Singapore including Temasek Foundation, Singapore Global Network, Golden Gate Ventures, Google Cloud, Reactor School and many ecosystem partners.

After many rounds of evaluation, the final 10 startups entered a 9-week acceleration roadmap, with training, mentoring, connecting networks of experts and investors… The teams also approached urgent topics for business development, including product and team building, corporate structure management, AI applications, capital raising skills and investment management.

According to the organizers, most startups develop from research capacity, expertise or practical experience in a university environment. Many teams apply AI, deep technology or specialized technology models to solve specific problems in health, education, energy, sustainable materials, public administration, manufacturing and digital infrastructure.

Besides the two main awards, UniVentures also recognized Startup Promising for BioWraps. Belonging to BioWraps solution joint stock company, the model converts agricultural by-products into environmentally friendly biological packaging. The unit has successfully processed more than 35 tons of fruit peels, setting a similar goal with 100,000 tons of by-products, bringing 80,000 tons of biological packaging to the market and contributing to reducing about 380,000 tons of CO2 emissions by 2030.

“For a long time, universities in Vietnam have possessed a rich source of talent. What needs more support are pathways to transform talent into businesses capable of reaching the regional and even global markets,” said Mr. Edward Lim, Country Director of NUS Enterprise and Block71 in Vietnam. “A country’s innovation capacity cannot be built in just one year, but will need to be built up through each generation of startups.”

“This year’s results reflect the increasing quality of startups originating from the Vietnamese university environment. Not only possessing professional backgrounds, many teams also show the ability to transform research, technology and academic knowledge into business models with potential for commercialization and expansion into international markets,” he added.

Also within the framework of UniVentures – Global Launch Day, many startups initially expanded their cooperation networks outside of Vietnam. In particular, BioWraps established connections with partners from Korea, India and Greece to promote product development and access international markets; Volterra signed a cooperation agreement with Van der Leun Vietnam, a member of a technical group from the Netherlands; or Selformy, Lawzy and Trazen also recorded practical implementation agreements with businesses and organizations in the fields of education, technology and human resource development.