Singapore's TurtleTree wins the world's biggest start-up pitch competition in Saudi Arabia

The Entrepreneurship World Cup 2020 was hosted online by the Misk Global Forum in Riyadh

Entrepreneurship World Cup attracted more than 175,000 start-ups from nearly 200 countries. Courtesy Hub71

Singapore-based food technology start-up TurtleTree Labs won the Entrepreneurship World Cup 2020, the world's biggest start-up pitch competition in Saudi Arabia, and secured a cash prize of $500,000.

The contest was hosted by the Misk Global Forum that concluded in Riyadh on Monday.

"Despite the constraints of Covid-19, this year’s virtual gathering was bigger and better than before,” Badr Al Badr, the Misk Foundation's chief executive, said.

"At Misk we believe that immense difficulties present great opportunities, but only to those who are active and adaptive. We don’t see Generation X, Y, or Z, or 'millennials'; we see 'Generation Solve' – defined around young people’s potential to turn challenges into youth-led solutions.”

The winning start-up TurtleTree creates milk sustainably using cell-based technology. It works with dairy brands, healthcare and nutrition companies, dairy processors and confectionery brands globally.

“We are addressing the value gap created by an insufficient and unsustainable animal-based dairy industry,” the company’s founder Fengru Lin said.

“Our approach involves working with mammalian cells … so they can be cultured, differentiated and induced to lactate,” she said.

Canadian Cleantech start-ups Flite Material Sciences and Genecis Bioindustries won the second and the third prizes worth $250,000 and $100,000 respectively.

Flite uses lasers to change the surface of materials so that they protect themselves from rust, ice, fouling and pathogens, without toxic chemical coatings.

“Our clean, patented technique can protect human life, make safer products and improve industrial products in almost every industry,” Dan Cohen, founder of the company said.

Genecis uses bacteria and synthetic biology tools to transform organic waste into high value materials and chemicals.

“Our first product line is marine biodegradable polymers that can be used to make thermo-resistant packaging, pharmaceutical products and 3D printing filaments,” Robert Celik, Genecis founder, said.

The EWC received entries from more than 175,000 start-ups from nearly 200 countries.

Over 1,000 shortlisted start-ups pitched at 65 national finals held across six continents this year, organised and judged by entities from the local entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The top 10 finalists competed on Monday for cash prizes totalling $1 million. The top 100 finalists will also receive a package of in-kind services valued at $850,000 each.

EWC attracted more than 100,000 applicants from 187 countries in its inaugural event last year.

Besides awarding the top three start-ups, there were four “category awards” that fetched each company a cash reward of $50,000.

The UAE-based Key2enable Assistive Technology, which empowers children with disabilities using a set of assistive technology, was awarded in best growth category.

Key2enable designs tools that accelerate users’ communication and learning process and help them to become self-sufficient.

“Our revenue comes from direct sales plus monthly subscription plans,” said Jose Rubinger Filho, company’s founder.

“First, we understand their [users] needs … then, we indicate the best one [solution] in a subscription-based plan.”

Other winners of the category prizes include the US-based health and wellness companies Rubitection (best early stage) and Vuetech Health Innovations (best idea), and Saudi Arabia-based education technology start-up BrightSign (best social).