16 Pilots unveiled at the GreenTech Accelerator 2024 Showcase Day

The team at UOB FinLab culminated our six-month GreenTech Accelerator 2024 (GTA), unveiling 16 pilots at our Showcase Day on 4 November 2024 as part of Singapore FinTech Festival’s Insights Forum. UOB FinLab awarded a total of more than S$100,000 to selected GreenTech firms to kick start the various pilot projects between the GreenTech participants, UOB and corporate partners such as DKSH Healthcare, Marina Bay Sands, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore), Great Cosmo (Malaysia), and IMPACT (Thailand).

We believe that with proper support from a strong network and appropriate resources, GreenTechs and businesses can make transformative progress towards ASEAN’s sustainability ambitions.

Before we dive into some of the innovative pilots, let’s go through some of the programme details for this year’s GreenTech Accelerator.

One of our GreenTech Accelerator sessions was hosted in our metaverse, FinLab World, connecting 33 Greentechs from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand through a livestreamed session

What is different about this year’s GreenTech Accelerator?

The GreenTech Accelerator 2024 is the second edition of UOB FinLab’s six-month regional programme that enables ASEAN GreenTech firms to grow and transform, forge partnerships and create pilots to address sustainability challenges across the region.

Building on the success of the inaugural run in 2022 in Singapore with over 150 applications,1 pilot and more than 160 meaningful business connections. This year’s programme expanded the programme’s reach beyond Singapore to UOB’s key ASEAN markets of Malaysia and Thailand.

In 2024, 33 GreenTech firms were shortlisted from more than 350 applicants to participate in the programme, of which 12 firms are from Singapore, nine from Malaysia and 12 from Thailand. This year’s programme called for sustainability challenge statements covering five key areas: circular economy and waste management, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, sustainable cities and urban planning, and sustainability reporting and carbon management.

During the six months, the selected GreenTechs tackled real-world sustainability pain-points from more than 50 challenge statements to co-create solutions for partnerships and pilot projects. These statements were contributed by 27 challenge partners including UOB as well as our corporate partners.

Pilot and Partnerships

During the programme, the 33 participating GreenTech firms proposed solutions based on the challenge statements and 16 pilots were selected for funding by UOB FinLab. Seven of these pilots will be deployed with corporate partners in Singapore, three pilots in Malaysia and another six pilots in Thailand, with more than 280 business connections established

UOB FinLab, together with its corporate partners, shortlisted the GreenTechs and their pilot solutions as they have the potential to set a new industry benchmark for sustainability practices and drive greater green adoption across ASEAN.

The full list of pilots can be found in the table appended below. Some innovative pilots we would like to highlight include:

– UOB X GreenFi – Analysing greenhouse gas emissions (Singapore)

UOB will be deploying five pilots within the Bank in Singapore and Thailand. One of the pilots is the development of a white-labelled data platform by GreenFi that enables the Bank and its subsidiaries to manage and analyse the greenhouse gas emissions data of their properties. This allows the Bank to validate emissions reporting more efficiently by eliminating manual collation of data and ensuring consistency and accuracy of the datasets.

– UOB X Circular Unite – Reduction of waste using data (Singapore)

UOB is constantly looking for ways to reduce waste through data. To solve this issue, Circular Unite proposed a solution that will result in the deployment of their waste audit and profiling blueprint at UOB that allows for detailed measuring of waste generated at the tenant level at UOB Plaza. This will help create waste data visibility and potentially improve operational efficiency of waste data collection.

– DKSH Healthcare X Smart Tradzt – Analysing carbon footprint data (Singapore)

DKSH Healthcare, part of the Swiss holding company specialising in market expansion services, will partner GreenTech firm Smart Tradzt to implement its solution that can quantify the carbon footprint and value chain collaboration of its cold chain reusable packaging. The platform will enable DKSH Healthcare to share its product carbon footprint data with clients and customers, facilitating accurate Scope 3 emissions calculations after conducting lifecycle analysis.

– Great Cosmo X Co.Efficient Alpha – Optimising energy consumption (Singapore / Malaysia)

Malaysian plastic manufacturing company Great Cosmo will pilot GreenTech firm Co.Efficient Alpha’s voltage optimising technology in their factory. This aims to reduce energy consumption for Great Cosmo’s machineries, potentially resulting in approximately 10 per cent cost savings. In Thailand, leading event and exhibition centre IMPACT will also partner GreenTech firm GEPP Sa-Ard to pilot a holistic waste reduction programme for events held at the exhibition centre. This pilot will enable the centre, organisers and visitors to reduce waste generation, increase recycling rate and reduce overall cost of waste management.

– UOB X AltoTech (Thailand)

AltoTech Global will provide tailored data solutions to help analyse energy consumption patterns at UOB Plaza Bangkok, find gaps for energy efficiency improvement, and propose automation recommendations to help reduce energy use and cut carbon emissions.

Beyond the programme, we are delighted that our participants continue to keep in contact with the programme mentors and members of UOB FinLab to bounce ideas off and make introductions to new ecosystem partners.

UOB FinLab will continue to accelerate sustainability adoption by building a platform that fosters business growth and innovation through collaboration and collective action across ASEAN. The team has plans to launch additional initiatives to drive green growth in 2025 and beyond. Watch this space and stay up to date with our programmes on LinkedIn!