Educational apps from Asia get noticed at US competition

The Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Tech-I Pitch Competition, held at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016 in the US, has awarded US$70,000 in cash and additional prizes to 29 science and technology entrepreneurs representing 23 countries and territories, chosen from over 1,000 applications submitted by science and technology entrepreneurs in 135 emerging economies.

Tech winners of the 2016 Tech-I Competition from Asia Pacific and the Middle East included:

Startup Stage: 1st place, winning US$15,000
Hoang Dao, Monkey Junior, Vietnam. Monkey Junior is an interactive application that teaches children from a few months old to six years to read using proven pedagogical methods. It is currently available in multiple languages, and is currently the highest ranked language literacy app in the Android app store and Google Play.

Startup Stage: 3rd place, winning US$3,000
Muhammad Waqas, WonderTree, Pakistan. WonderTree produces interactive augmented reality educational games for children with cognitive or motor disabilities.

Startup Stage: Honorable Mention, winning US$2,000
Md. Samid Razzak, 10 Minute School, Bangladesh. Ten Minute School is an online platform that offers educational tools that is tailored to Bangladesh’s educational system.

The GIST Tech-I Pitch Competition seeks to empower young innovators through networking, skills building, mentoring, and access to financing to develop startup solutions that address their economic and development challenges.

Alex Foo, co-owner of Starteur, an online psychometric profiling tool targeted at entrepreneurs, attended GES 2016 under the sponsorship of Shopee, Garena’s e-commerce platform, in keeping with its corporate philosophy to develop the next generation of budding entrepreneurs. In a Shopee University session, he spoke to Shopee entrepreneurs and media about his experience.

"When you meet other people who are five steps ahead of you, you question how they go about it," he said. "When you have these conversations, you grow much faster, you shorten your learning curve."

Interested?

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post about Foo's takeaways from GES 2016

Hashtag: #GES2016