Canadian startup innovating chemical testing bags $100k in Singapore competition

The Spectra Plasmonics team. Photo credit: Queen’s University.

In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation push at this year’s National Day rally, the ninth Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition had the theme of “Smart Cities.” The biennial competition, organized by Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), called for proposals for innovations that could address the opportunities and challenges a smart city could face.

The team at Spectra Plasmonics, from Queen’s University of Canada, walked away with the grand prize of US$100,000. They made an impression on the judges with their cost-effective solution that helps in ultrasensitive chemical detection for food and water contamination and defends against illegal drugs and terrorism agents. The team’s solution has commercial applications and could improve and save lives.

According to SMU president Arnoud De Meyer, the previous edition of the competition saw great participation from emerging Asian economies. But this time, the competition received more entries from beyond the region, with 550 submissions from over 300 universities in 68 countries. This far surpassed 184 entries from 140 universities in the last edition. This year’s competition also brought in a number of mentors and judges to support the participating startups, including Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel.

The competition’s criteria for evaluating the finalists were:

• Innovativeness and impact of the business idea
• Commercial feasibility
• Capability to execute

Spectra Plasmonics beat five other finalists in the competition:

1. Cambridge Cancer Genomics: CCG combines the deep profiling of tumors prior to treatment and rapidly produced personalized point of care assays for treatment tracking.
2. Complex Disease Detector: This is an accurate, non-invasive and inexpensive tool for screening and diagnosing coronary heart disease early.
3. Elephant Chain: This is a consortium blockchain platform for enterprises to build blockchain applications.
4. Kulisha: This is an end-to-end organic waste treatment solution for food and beverage processing plants that converts organic waste byproducts into a sustainable insect protein for use in animal feeds.
5. Wriggle Solutions: SMART Tyre is a disruptive innovation in automotive safety that is capable of measuring a tire’s tread depth through sensing technologies. It can also diagnose possible damages, deformations, and flat tires.

In the future, it is possible that we’ll see the competition launch its finalists at major startup and innovation hubs around the world to further extend its reach.