Qualcomm Incorporated, through its subsidiary Qualcomm Vietnam Co., Ltd., is set to name the top 3 winning startups for the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge.
As a global leader in technology and innovation, Qualcomm understands that innovation rarely occurs within the vacuum of a single organization, but rather, requires an abundance of technologies, talents, support, and cooperation among others. According to a recent report from Deloitte LLP’s U.S. CIO Program, ecosystems that include internal and external business partners can help accelerate innovation while also reducing risk.
Launched in 2019, the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge attracted a wide range of start-up applications across Vietnam, from which nine finalists were carefully chosen to take part in the 10-month incubation program.
Here, they received valuable mentoring on important skills and essential business knowledge – from operations and competitiveness analysis to product management and customer development, to intellectual property education and support to file patents. The finalists were also given access to Qualcomm’s vast array of technology solutions at the Qualcomm Interoperability Test Laboratory in Hanoi and received engineering and technical support for their products from Qualcomm’s world-class engineers.
“QVIC is not a mere competition like any other. It is the place where start-ups are assisted during and after the contest, one that nurtures innovation and success and further promotes, cultivates the start-up ecosystem of Vietnam,” one of the finalist startups shared.
As part of the support from Qualcomm, the nine finalists also received US$2,500 for each utility patent application field with the USA Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or the Vietnam Intellectual Property Office, with a limitation of up to 2 patent applications (US$5,000) per company.
Here’s a glimpse at the future tech entrepreneurs of Vietnam – the nine finalists of the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge 2021.
- 25 Inc. 25 Inc. was founded in 2016. The start-up is developing a 5G cloud edge device that could collect information, digitalize location and environmental information then use that to create appropriate sales programs for each individual location. The device would be extremely helpful for e-retailers in order to optimize operation and strategic planning.
- 3C Machinery. 3C Machinery is one of the most innovative robotics startups in Asia, located in HCMC, Vietnam that designs, develops and manufactures high-precision robotics, motion control and integrated solution for the industrial automation. 3C Machinery implements Cobots, an innovative and cost-effective development that utilizes collaborative robots and smart ecosystem and contribute to the Industry 4.0 transformation of Vietnam. The Viet-Cobot represents the big idea of building a robotics company that combines software robotics, automatic machine and human’s intelligence to replace human labor in hazardous environments with accurate speed and high effectivity.
- AIOZ & BeetleBot. AIOZ is a DeepTech startup, Researching and Developing (R&D) proprietary AI technologies for video analytics, mobile robotics systems, smart city, and beyond. Through deep research and cutting-edge technologies, AIOZ addresses real-world challenges to build a stronger AI ecosystem that is scalable, reliable, and customizable. BeetleBot (Autonomous Mobile Delivery Robot) is the Robotics & AI solution that the team applied to QVIC program.
BeetleBot is an intelligent mobile delivery robot that would change the way of delivering food and packages, utilizing advancing AI and Robotics technology. This Bot is designed to be with great ambition and rigorous assurance for highly safe performance, loading efficiency and autonomously flexible. - BusMap/Phenikaa Maas. Starting from a leading public transit application in Vietnam with more than two million users, the bHub device featuring Qualcomm SDM660 chipset is a driver behavior recognition module that supports a short detection distance for driver behavior monitoring. The module features recognition technology and algorithms that monitor changes in driver eyes and body movement patterns to detect drowsiness and distraction, then send alert signals to the in-vehicle computer, from which back-end managers will receive warning notifications for better management and intelligent safety.
- Cloud Energy. Cloud Energy provides a platform (SaaS) for building facility management and utility management. This platform can integrate smart devices with sensors and develop into an entire smart building or utility solution. Cloud Energy introduces a module using NB-IoT, which could connect to any sensors or equipment devices through a standardized port of RS485 that allow the boost in building a smart city.
- Lancs Digital Vietnam. Lancs Digital has cooperated with several re-known technical research centers of Vietnam to study and develop advanced technologies, bringing practical, innovative application to serve the daily lives of Vietnamese, especially in the field of seafood – an export strength of Vietnam. Lancs Digital’s board of directors includes members who had many years of experience working in technical and business fields such as Mr. Vu The Quang (Director of Comba Telecom Vietnam), Ha The Truong (Director of Siemens Vietnam, ECI Vietnam…) and Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of PTIT High-tech Integration Center. The company’s solution aims to serve customers (specifically shrimp farmers) a product at reasonable, optimized cost. There are several foreign water monitoring systems on the market, but their costs are all too high, making them inaccessible to local farmers.
- LC Vietnam. LC Vietnam was founded in 2014 and focuses on products that help save water and energy efficiently. The product LC Vietnam brings to compete at QVIC is an intelligent indicator reader that measures the real-time power consumption, analyze, and then give recommendations to users for more power efficiency. LC’s innovation would bring economic reduction, save energy and reduce CO2 emissions into the environment. Based on the collected data, it can make predictions about the health of machinery and equipment for more efficient maintenance.
- Rostek is a tech startup providing solutions for industrial intelligent automation and digital transformation. Established in 2019 with a team of experienced experts, AGV presents QVIC with their Self-Propelled AGV – a robot that transports goods in factories and warehouses autonomously. Rostek’s AGV utilizes lidar sensors, cameras, IMU, encoder, ultrasound, navigation algorithms and intelligent management software to ensure flexibility, safety and reliability. AGV is also integrated with Rostek’s smart warehouse management system and production performance monitoring system for a complete operation management. With the technical support from QVIC, Rostek has been able to perform experiment with precision to cut cost and speed up product development phase.
- Vulcan Augmetics. Vulcan Augmetics is a Vietnam-based manufacturer of modular robotic prosthetics. Their products aim to provide solutions for millions of amputees of Vietnam and later, develop into a fully integrated and comprehensive set of wearable technology with the ability to deploy machine learning and AI to rapidly calibrate and adapts to every user’s requirement, movements and master of skeletal movements. Can you imagine a future where we could replace our hurt body parts with robotic prosthetics, at ease and better flexibility?
Stay tuned and join us in the Finale event of the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge 2021 scheduled for 29 September, 2021 to know the top three winning startups of the inaugural challenge here!
