IMDA and Huawei Cloud launched Spark Incubator

Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) – through its Pixel Innovation Hub – and Huawei Cloud have launched Spark Incubator programme, which is aimed at helping Singapore’s  early-stage startups from FinTech, Web3, metaverse and SaaS sectors get off the ground.

“Start-ups participating in the Spark Incubator Programme can look forward to dedicated mentorship and access to facilities. The programme brings together Huawei’s expertise and IMDA PIXEL’s facilities in augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as the network of 12,000 solutions providers under IMDA’s Open Innovation Platform (OIP). These help Singapore start-ups build world-class products and scale across the region,” said Lew Chuen Hong, chief executive of IMDA.

The programme aims to incubate up to 12 start-ups per cohort for a period of five months and will be run twice over the span of a year.

It will provide access to valuable resources and expertise from IMDA and Huawei to further accelerate and grow their business. Start-ups are expected to receive third-party financing over S$250k or increase their valuation by at least 20% or cross S$250k at its annual revenue in the post-program.

After four months of selection from over 80 applications, nine  start-ups  have been named as the first cohort from Nov 2022 to Mar 2023:

Web 3:

• Nervotec: Healthcare analytics as a service to monitor medical-grade vital signs
• NFT Circle: Digitalisation of a physical asset, real estate, and arts as a service
• Heros: Enable athletes to monetise their careers through fan engagements and rewards

Fintech:

• D-Risk: Assists companies to manage credit risk efficiently, accurately, and affordably with AI
• Corgi.AI: A fraud prevention AI plug-in helping businesses better understand and prevent fraud

Enterprise SaaS:

• Linh.AI: Solution for higher quality and cost-effective data annotation
• Better Data: AI synthetic data provider
• Zapkad: A smart digital business card with comprehensive features worldwide
• Xrator: Forges cyber resilience for all organisations

Throughout this incubator programme, participants can look to receive Huawei Cloud credits up to US$60,000, up to $75,000 fee-free processing on Stripe, office space at Pixel, as well as additional mentorship from Huawei and its like-minded industry partners such as IMDA, Stripe, AngelCentral, MasterCard, Monk’s Hill, GSR Ventures, Lion X Ventures, OCBC, Mycelium Ventures and DocuSign.

With this partnership, IMDA and Huawei will jointly help start-ups build customer-centric products by tapping on advice from Pixel’s panel of consultants in Design Thinking and UI/UX  with Digital Storytelling, along with access to lead corporate demand through IMDA’s Open Innovation Platform (OIP).

“Working alongside these most promising start-ups provides co-creation and innovative opportunities where together we can bring greater value to our customers, and upscale Singapore’s economic competitiveness in the long term. We pledge to continue driving innovation with our start-up’s alumni from Singapore to Asia Pacific and even further, providing a global platform for the most ground-breaking and transformational companies to thrive,” said Foo Fang Yong, CEO of Huawei International.