Malaysian and Indonesian startups make finals of GIST Business Plan Competition

Four startups from Southeast Asia have made the finals of the GIST Business Plan Competition, a global initiative with the aim of stregthening relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

Funded by the US Department of State, the competition climaxes on 28th to 29th June where ten finalists will compete in Dubai for four awards totaling US$100,000.

Here is the list of the ten finalists:

SecQme is a mobile security tracking service that will automatically trigger for help, without any intervention from the user. This team is led by GISTech-I Finalist James Khoo, founder and CEO with over 15 years of experience with multinational companies in software solution architecture and development. He is based in Malaysia.

CloudStat is the cloud environment for building statistical applications and big data analysis collaboratively. This team is led by Chew Kai Feng, a serial entrepreneur from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) with a BA (Hons) in Actuarial Science in 2011.

Dwarapala is an e-commerce platform to help offline retailers setup their personal online store with a simple store interface, beautiful store front design, and personalized customer service. This team is led by Diki Irawan, who brought his experience from the US and Malaysia to go back to his country, Indonesia, where he based this startup.

MyDerm is laboratory engineered artificial human skin that will be used for treatment of people with chronic diabetic ulcers, burns and skin trauma. This team is led by Dr. Khairul Idzwan bin Baharin, the CEO of Cell TissueTechnology Sdn. Bhd. He is based in Malaysia.

E-Aid is a private educational service, based in Karachi, Pakistan, providing online face-to-face tutoring lessons for high school and college students from all over the world. The lessons are mainly focused on exam preparation for a wide variety of subjects and have the convenience of flexible timing and location. Rumaisa Mohani, the team leader, has an MBA and extensive experience teaching.

Greennovation Technologies is introducing an affordable and sustainable housing material named Jutin®, produced from a composition of jute fiber and resin. This team is led by Md. Saimum Hossain, Managing Director, a graduate from the Faculty of Business Studies (FBS), University of Dhaka, trained in the USA, Malaysia and India regarding running start-ups and crisis management. He is based in Bangladesh.

GreenSpark offers improved electricity generation technology through portable “D.light battery” in households (at USD 1.875/month), supporting a bulb, a fan, and a cell phone charger 24/7. This team is led by Ovick Alam, student in University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is the second startup he has co-founded.

Mmatcher is a mobile value added service that offers a new dimension of grass root level C2C as well as B2C trading via SMS and thereby seeks to become a game changer to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. This team is led by Muhammed Awais, an experienced executive with key skills in marketing, sales, customer care and market development while exploiting new technologies. He is based in Pakistan.

PAK-Energy Solution introduces a portable and affordable natural gas digester for domestic use. It automatically generates clean gas for cooking, heating and lighting. The interesting part lies in its by-product fertilizer which is excellent for green agriculture. This team is led by Ali Raza, Founder and CEO. He is an electrical engineer who graduated from University of Engineering & Technology, in Lahore, Pakistan. This team was also a semifinalist at the GISTech-I Competition.

Women’s Digital League is a virtual firm that provides digital support services to clients including content creation, blog posts, articles, data entry, social media management, calendaring, reservations, party planning, and more. This team is led by founder Maria Umarwho strives to empower Pakistani women entrepreneurs through this venture.

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