The year has flown by once again! As we rapidly head into the end of December, we wanted to take a moment of reflection and review our key milestones and achievements in 2024.
Before we get into it, the team at UOB FinLab would like to thank everyone that made this year a huge success. First and foremost, this would not have been possible without everyone in the UOB FinLab ecosystem including the various SMEs, mentors, industry experts and corporate partners. Collaboration is key to our success and the strong ecosystem we have built enabled us to continuously take our achievements to new heights.
This would also not have been possible without the unwavering support from the UOB FinLab team and all our ‘Finterns’. Everyone went above and beyond to ensure all our programme participants are equipped with the necessary tools, knowledge and connections to catalyse their digitalisation and sustainability objectives.
We have a lot of exciting plans for 2025 that we will unveil soon – but first, let’s look back at our key highlights in 2024!
The Acceleration Programme for the Arts 2024 is a collaborative effort between National Arts Council (NAC) and UOB FinLab that aims to help artists and organisations digitalise and bolster their business competencies.
UOB FinLab understands that art is a powerful tool to build a vibrant culture and sees huge potential the sector will receive through digitalisation. At the same time, we understand that digitalisation can be easier said than done. Successful implementation requires education, resources and access to a vast ecosystem which is paramount for arts organisations to successfully digitise and receive the benefits.
The 3-week programme enables participants to leverage UOB FinLab’s vast ecosystem of 27,000 professionals including government partners, mentors, solutions providers and key industry stakeholders across ASEAN. With such an extensive network, this allows participants to gain access to knowledge, best practices, resources and new business prospects.
In addition, the programme teaches participants about different business models and strategies specifically tailored for the arts industry such as marketing, customer retention, consumer credit card journeys and best practices for operating a commercial business. The programme also introduced UOB World, a virtual environment that aims to engage today’s digital natives in a fresh new way. UOB World opens up endless collaboration opportunities with organisations in the arts space to co-create virtual experiences for UOB’s customers.
UOB World enabled UOB FinLab to partner with the arts alumni to create FinLab World. FinLab World is our first-ever metaverse experience that enables anyone to uncover the secrets of business transformation in Digitalisation and Sustainability, while gaining access to resources and live masterclasses at our auditorium.
As more womenpreneurs rise up in ASEAN and build their businesses, we are aware that many face unique obstacles. From our conversations with womenpreneurs, one constant hurdle that limits business growth opportunities is the lack of professional networks.
UOB FinLab believes that accelerator programmes like Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneur are key to unlocking the potential of womenpreneurs and address challenges when it comes to the lack of access to professional networks.
Our two-week womenpreneur programme in April 2024 was a huge success. The womenpreneurs gained insights and best practices on topics related to financial literacy, business model canvas, e-commerce and digitalisation strategies. It also connected these womenpreneurs with industry experts and professional mentors that shared individualised feedback that was relevant to their respective journeys.
We saw womenpreneurs use the knowledge to take their businesses to the next level. One example is Ethel Tan, Founder of Edith Patisserie. After attending UOB FinLab’s Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneur, she learnt the best practices for setting up an international e-commerce platform. She has now taken her first step to on-board the e-commerce platform and aims to start her international journey in January 2025.
To complement our successful programme and further empower womenpreneurs, we launched our first two-day masterclass workshop titled Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneur+ (D.I.P:W+).
The D.I.P:W+ is a series of masterclasses to empower aspiring womenpreneurs with knowledge from industry experts and tap into a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. D.I.P:W+ aims to complement the womenpreneur programme in April 2024 and covers new topics that are crucial to the success of any business. The topics include crafting a brand narrative, effective marketing channels and LinkedIn strategies for organic growth. The programme was held over two days and consisted of three insightful masterclasses conducted by industry experts.
The ongoing demand for ESG practices continued into 2024. What stood out to us this year is that SMEs are proactively implementing ESG initiatives instead of adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach.
We saw a huge demand in our Sustainability Innovation Programme 2024 (SIP) that provided SMEs with the knowledge to integrate sustainability into their business models, while balancing profitability.
This year’s sessions have been tailored to focus on areas that SMEs often struggle with — particularly when it comes to understanding ESG reporting, disclosure for green-financing and grants, and material assessment for net-zero and carbon-neutrality. Participants gained knowledge through various sessions with leading industry experts and solution providers to help SMEs kickstart and thrive in their sustainability journey.
The impact of SIP is proven with 65% of participants from 2023’s cohort stating that the programme sparked the start of their ESG programmes. This year is no exception — 66% of participants completed their Gprnt disclosures and 56% of participants completed the UOB Sustainability Compass report. Having a customised report based on each businesses’ sector and sustainability maturity stage enables firms to kick start and/or fine tune their sustainability initiatives.
We believe that collaboration and education is key to move ASEAN SME’s sustainability strategy forward from a “wait and see” approach, to actual implementation. UOB FinLab will continue to tailor our programmes to help SMEs overcome challenges when it comes to implementing sustainability initiatives and build our professional network to help SMEs achieve their sustainable objectives in all aspects – from expert knowledge, technology solutions, industry partners, and more.
We witnessed innovative GreenTech solutions being developed into pilots to solve real-life sustainability challenges through UOB FinLab’s GreenTech Accelerator 2024. Through the programme, 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 from across the region.
As more companies go green, there will naturally be a demand for innovative greentech solutions to meet the economic and environmental needs of businesses. To accomplish this, it is crucial for greentech solution providers to work closely with corporates and industry leaders to pilot and commercially deploy solutions.
UOB FinLab successfully achieved this through its GreenTech Accelerator 2024 that enabled ASEAN GreenTechs with access to world-class mentors, industry experts and leading businesses. This resulted in 16 pilots and more than S$100,000 awarded to selected GreenTech firms to kick start the various pilot projects with UOB and corporate partners such as DKSH Healthcare, Marina Bay Sands, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore), Great Cosmo (Malaysia), and IMPACT (Thailand). The full list of pilots and details can be found HERE.
UOB FinLab is proud of what we have achieved in 2024 and will continue to catalyse business growth through digitalisation and sustainability. We believe that with proper support from a strong network and appropriate resources, ASEAN businesses can make transformative progress and unlock greater business opportunities.
To learn more about UOB FinLab, click here.
To learn more about UOB FinLab programmes, click here.
Continuing from last year, #UOBxWomenpreneurs series returns in 2025, organised by Business Banking Singapore (BBS), UOB FinLab, and Group Wholesale and Markets Marketing (GWMM) to engage and empower women entrepreneurs in Singapore. The initiative creates a strong platform for women-led businesses to access practical resources, mentorship, and a supportive network as they grow and lead with confidence.
Uncover how Singapore’s AI Strategy aand UOB FinLab’s hands-on support are turning ambition into action for SMEs.
Discover key insights from the recent May Day Rally, highlighting how digitalisation, sustainability, talent development and upskilling are shaping Singapore’s economy.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
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