Chosen from over 2,400 applications, the Top 100 Global Startups are set to pitch their most innovative ideas on stage next week at Asia’s hottest deep tech pitching competition

Overpopulation. A warming planet. Decreasing food and water security. In an increasingly globalised world, our planet is facing new challenges that threaten our existing way of life.

But there’s a silver lining – as our global needs evolve, so does technology. New disruptive technologies are invented by startups every day, and their innovations could be the key to paving the way for a sustainable future.

With that, sustainability is at the heart of tech at SLINGSHOT 2019, a deep tech startup pitching competition held at SFF x SWITCH from 11 to 13 November. This year, SLINGSHOT received more than 2,400 applications from 120 countries!

The selected Top 100 Global Startups will finally take the stage next week to pitch their most innovative ideas to the world, and battle it out for more than US$2 million in prizes.

Check out these four participating startups from SLINGSHOT 2019, and their commitment to ensuring there is a future for our next generations:

Biteback (Singapore) – Disrupting the US$60 billion palm oil industry with bugs

Cooking oil and butter made from insects? Agri-food tech startup Biteback has created a healthier and more sustainable alternative to palm oil – the production of which is a major contributing factor to climate change.

“Growing up in Indonesia, we witnessed the destruction of natural resources due to the ever-increasing demand for palm oil and the endless expansion of palm plantations,” said Biteback Co-Founder Mush’ab Nursantio, who studied agricultural technology.

Biteback was born out of a university research project that he was working on with fellow Co-Founder Ifdhol Syawkoni. Initially, they looked at insects as a source of protein, but soon realised its potential to create oil-based products.

Together, the pair developed a refining technology to manufacture ingredients, such as cooking oil, butter, fatty alcohol and biofuel, from edible insects.

Biteback is a novel solution to the way humans produce and consume food. Not only is their insect-based oil rich in nutrients, using insects reportedly produces an oil yield 40 times more than palm oil on the same land area.

Biteback has offices in Indonesia, the United States, and Singapore. As the company continues to scale, both Nursantio and Syawkoni hope they can help to reduce deforestation in their home country.

BeON Energy (Portugal) – The world’s first plug-in solar micro-inverter

BeON Energy is making clean green energy accessible and affordable to all households with revolutionary do-it-yourself plug-in solar kits. This allows customers to connect a solar panel to their home power socket, and convert solar energy into electricity to power their entire homes.

BeOn Energy’s kits contain a solar panel, micro-inverter, cable and other accessories. The product’s value lies in how easily they can be installed in one’s property, just like any regular home appliance – as “simple as connecting to a television”, according to Rui Beon, CEO and Founder of BeON Energy.

Also read: An exploration of deep tech with SLINGSHOT 2019

What spurred the creation of these kits was the unreliability of solar technology in the market, said Beon, who has experience working in the solar industry overseas. He realised that many of the complexities and costs of domestic solar energy usage lay in the final step, of connecting the system to the household.

“We wanted to democratise solar power and accelerate the mass adoption of domestic renewal energy generation. By connecting the power generation device directly to a socket, we save time and money,” he added. Each solar kit from his startup costs around the same price as a television.

Founded in 2015, BeON Energy is headquartered in Portugal and has presence in France and Germany. To date, the startup has sold over 100,000 solar kits, which have been installed in 20,000 homes.

Revolv (Hong Kong) – A deposit-based rental system to reduce single-use plastic waste

Say bye to takeaway culture – Revolve is on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic waste for a greener planet. The startup has created a deposit-based tech platform that enables the seamless borrowing, using, and returning of reusable cups, bottles and containers at no cost.

Revolv was launched in Bali, Indonesia in April 2018 as a response to the visible plastic pollution back there. “In our first pilot location of Bali, there are daily reminders of how dire the current situation is. The rivers, beaches, and surrounding areas are submerged in discarded single use plastics,” said Francis Brian Reilly, Founder and CEO of Revolv.

By placing a deposit, customers can grab their coffee to go in a reusable cup at any one of Revolv’s participating food and beverage outlets. They can get back their deposit by returning their cups – which are tagged – to any partner within Revolv’s network. Each reusable will then be cleaned and re-circulated to its outlets for reuse.

“We hope to educate consumers and businesses alike that there are more sustainable alternatives,” added Reilly. “By bringing additional awareness to our everyday habits, we can make a tremendous difference and lasting impact.”

Revolv is currently operating in 18 venues in Bali – Canggu, Berawa and Seminyak. They have also rolled out the system in Hong Kong and most recently Singapore, at four environmentally-friendly cafes in the district of Tiong Bahru.

Altaroad (France) – Making roads safer and more environmentally-friendly

We’ve all been there – wasting precious time being stuck in a massive traffic jam at peak hour. But Altaroad is on a mission to make our roads more intelligent and sustainable.

The French startup has created an industrial internet of things (IoT) platform for infrastructure to optimise traffic and reduce emissions. They have embedded sensors beneath the road surface to generate real-time road data, in order to evaluate traffic patterns, monitor dangerous driving behaviour, track the weight of vehicles and assess their impact on the road.

Such data is useful, as it gives an indication of the road’s condition at any time, allowing maintenance or repair to be deployed. This data is made available through a cloud-based dashboard to road operators, city traffic managers, logisticians, and autonomous and connected cars.

Altaroad’s clients at present include French construction companies such as Eiffage and Leon Grosse.

This is just a teaser. To catch more startups changing the world for the better, come for SLINGSHOT 2019!

SLINGSHOT 2019, powered by Startup SG, is happening from 11 to 13 November at SFF x SWITCH. Register for your free Trade Visitor Pass to attend SLINGSHOT 2019 here!

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