Four teams made it to the last leg of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) smart cities datathon and are set to make their final pitch on Friday.
The four are: Aeloi Technologies, Alaga Health, Annapurna, and Inter-GenZ.
Aeloi Technologies is a social enterprise fintech company helping power last-mile impact finance.
Alaga Health is a digital healthcare company that helps users choose and access health care services 24-7.
Annapurna develops financial access solutions.
Inter-GenZ offers resource-sharing solutions.
The Smart Cities Datathon 2021—Building Back Smarter: Digital Solutions for Livable Cities is under ADB’s ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund, which was set up in 2019, with co-financing from the Australian government, to help ASEAN countries build livable cities that are green, competitive, inclusive, and resilient.
The final pitch will be streamed live from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Manila time) via Zoom. The winning team will be announced at the end of the event, which is open to the public.
The winner will receive $20,000 in seed money to test and adapt their ideas in real-world settings.
The finalists have received mentoring over the last few weeks to give them the chance to refine their ideas ahead of their last pitch to a panel of judges.
ADB initially picked 10 finalists out of 63 teams that joined the challenged. The finalists are diverse, offering a range of solutions from online marketplace for farmers, web-based healthcare, to satellite-based data service and enterprise mobility and workforce management. The other six finalists are: 6E Resources Private Limited, EarthPulse SL, GOSSIP™, GramHeet, Mobiva Ecosystem, and StreetSmarts.
6E Resources offers community-based drinking water and sanitation systems.
EarthPulse SL is a startup that leverages on earth observation data to serve clients. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze data to provide actionable knowledge to clients.
GOSSIP™ developed a namesake app designed to provide users curated information and goings-on in a particular neighborhood in their city.
GramHeet is a startup that supports farmers. It aims to provide a one-stop marketplace for farmers at the village level. With the marketplace, farmers have the option to sell their produce immediately or wait for favorable market conditions.
Mobiva offers enterprise mobility solutions for workforce management and disaster risk reduction and emergency management.
The solutions submitted by the 10 finalists were evaluated by a panel of judges that included Abigail Bakker, senior policy officer, Social Protection Section, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia; Adam Beck, executive director, Smart Cities Council; Sibesh Bhattacharya, principal infrastructure specialist, ADB; Ronald Chung, principal solutions architect, Smart Cities, Amazon Web Services; and Stuart Mackay, technical director; Ramboll Singapore.
In launching the hackathon in March, Joris Van Etten, ADB senior urban development specialist, challenged startups, students, research organizations, independent researchers, and corporate partners to pitch their ideas. “We challenge innovators from around the world to tackle the idea of how to build back smarter and how to use digital solutions to make cities more livable.”
The ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund supports cities with capacity development assistance and partnerships. ADB manages the trust fund, which has $14 million in funding.
