Auf Suche nach Startups: Stratosfare goes international

Here in advance: A presentation with a selection of startups that we met on the trip and consider interesting can be found at the end of the article. If you would like to find out more or get in touch, please get in touch with us.

We use public transport to get to SWITCH. The metro network in Singapore is very cheap, autonomous, always on time, clean and has connections throughout the city. However, the cleanliness comes with the threat of horrendous fines. Eating in the subway costs 1000 SG dollars (~ 700€), and smoking 2000 SG dollars (~ 1400 €). The fair itself takes place on the island of Sentosa Island, which has been artificially enlarged by land reclamation. A rather early realization at SWITCH was that the rooms were far too cold due to the air conditioning and the catering was too short, but that's just a side note.

In addition to startup exhibitions, there are two stages with lectures and conferences on various topics. Together with the partners of Stratosfare, we have the opportunity to present our initiative on the Global-Stage Bühne and make interested parties aware of it. If you are not yet familiar with what the initiative is all about, just take a look at the website or talk to us about it.

A number of topics are very prominent at the trade fair itself. From our perception, these are the trending topics of the innovation ecosystem in Singapore:

Drone technology
Vertical farming
Health tech (focus on medical devices, less „lifestyle“ health tech)

So we are using the first day to get an initial overview in order to take a closer look at everything over the next few days. We will also be taking part in a roundtable organized by NRW. Global Business to present OWL as an economically strong region via the Stratosfare Initiative. Organized by the AHK in Singapore, several government organizations, network partners and startups participated.

Sentosa Island can be easily reached with the Sentosa Express, an elevated train that connects the Harbour Front district with Sentosa Island. From the elevated position, you have a good view of parts of the harbor. Due to its location on busy shipping routes between Southeast Asia and Europe, the second largest port in the world contributed enormously to the economic growth of the city-state. It is still an important economic factor in the country today, which is underlined by the hundreds of ships anchored in front of the harbor basin.</p

On days 2 and 3 at SWITCH, in addition to „spontaneous“ networking, we also have appointments with pre-arranged start-ups. On the main stage, we will see pitches from startups in various subject areas, but also visit the stands of startup and innovation organizations. Whether Finland, Canada, NRW or other regions/countries, the selection is diverse. At the same time, there are evening events organized by the „Stammtisch German Entrepreneruship“ and „Berlin Goes Singapore“ by the AHK. There we get to know network partners who promote business relations between Singapore and Germany and expand them within the framework of start-up activities. Our insight here: sometimes you meet exciting German start-ups on the other side of the globe.</p

In addition, Miele also visited a startup in its office in Singapore, with which a cooperation has been running for a year, which arose from a joint event organized by Stratosfare and Enterprise Singapore. Miele welcomed the start-up in Gütersloh back in the summer. Team Miele was therefore delighted to be able to take a look behind the startup's doors.

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On the way to the lab crawls, which take place all over the city, we get to know the sustainable side of the city. Locals also call the city the „Garden City“. The government has recognized sustainability as a locational advantage and is putting a lot of effort into making the city as green as possible. High-rise buildings have to have garden levels, there are green spaces everywhere, green strips line the streets and the centerpiece is the park "Gardens by the Bay" as a prestige project of the government.

After many networking events, pitches, talks, roundtables, etc., the Lab Crawls are a nice change of pace. We visit the three research labs „Environmental and Water Technology Center of Innovation (EWT)”, a lab of the „National University of Singapore (NUS)“ and the „Smart Urban Co-Innovation Labs“. At the EWT, we are shown parts of the research on water filtration with a special membrane technology. In NUS laboratories, we gain insights into indoor farming technologies. There, for example, tomatoes are grown in farming cabinets. The plants are pollinated using drones.  The „Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab“ is visited by WAGO and is Southeast Asia's first industry-led lab for the development of smart city solutions, initiated by CapitaLand Investment (CLI). There, colleagues gain insights into how they implement solutions in the areas of asset management, energy monitoring and smart offices together with other partners in the ecosystem.

At PALO IT we get the opportunity to test prototypes around „VR“, „Med Tech“, „IoT Sensors and Analytics for Environmental Monitoring“ and „Intelligent Waste Detection and Sorting“ and we can also mine our first NFT.

We can enjoy our day off to take in a few other sides and impressions of Singapore. The result after this day: a 13-hour flight is definitely worthwhile, even privately, to visit the city and get to know a different kind of environment and life. It is „Asia for beginners“.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, we take a cab from Singapore across the land border to Malaysia. Just over the border is Johor Bahru, the capital of the state of Johor. Many people live here who work in Singapore but find it too expensive to live there. On our way to the meeting, the difference to Singapore becomes immediately apparent - the streets are dirtier and the green areas are less well-kept, the buildings are no longer all ultra-modern and the cars are cheaper. And, as we had already noticed during the cab ride with the cut-off goods, they are no longer completely safe 24/7.

After arriving at the office complex, we go straight into meetings with the start-ups. The scouting is done by our ecosystem partner Start IIX. Start IIX is responsible for the networking of various partners in the innovation ecosystem in Johor. The startups are a cross-section of the scene in Johor. From Industrial Data Science (Kotak Sakti) and Data Intelligence (Hexphyre Technologies), to a platform for Community Farms (Pasarkita) and Elderly Care (SmartPEEP) as well as Rehabilitation Tech (Techcare Innovation) and Industrial Waste and Recycling (GarGeon), there are many exciting topics and technologies. After the meetings, we will visit Iskandar City. Since 2006, an entire area has been developed and rebuilt from scratch in several large-scale projects. Among other things, a new administrative city, a sustainable residential area and a university city with foreign universities have been created. In the evening, we flew on to the capital Kuala Lumpur. The landing with Malaysia Airlines was quite rapid and resembled a free fall from three meters, but still brought us to our destination - welcome to Kuala Lumpur.

The next two days will be used to network in the startup and innovation scene in Kuala Lumpur. In the capital, we will first take part in a roundtable organized by the Malaysian-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce and our partner NRW.Global Business. After Daniel Kinder (Miele), Mareen Vaßholz (WAGO) and Martin Rabe (Fraunhofer IEM) present Stratosfare, we network with the invited organizations. For the most part, these are government agencies and ministries that promote innovation and start-ups. After the networking lunch, we quickly move on to the MRANTI Technology Park. There we are given a guided tour of a makerspace and a smart hotel showroom.

Afterwards, we will have the opportunity to gain an insight into MRANTI's future plans and the design of its own campus with a focus on „Green Tech“, „Agritech“, „Biotech“, „Smart Manufacturing“ and „Smart City“. We will return to the MRANTI Technology Park tomorrow to meet some start-ups from their portfolio. But first we are going back to the hotel for dinner. Kuala Lumpur is a melting pot of cultures. On Jalan Alor street, you can find street food from all Asian countries and from a wide variety of cultures. After dinner and a Tiger beer, it's off to bed.

On the second day, we head straight back to MRANTI Technology Park after breakfast. The morning is filled with startup pitches. From sustainable composite materials (Midwest composites) and industrial IoT applications (Hexa IoT), to computer vision for recognizing human behavior (Glueck Tech) and an IoT hub for smart devices (bWave) as well as smart identification solutions (CALMS Technologies), exciting technologies will once again be presented in Kuala Lumpur. Further cooperation with MRANTI will then be discussed. The business trip and Ecosystem Journey to Singapore and Malaysia will end here with a return trip to the hotel and a final evening with the Stratosfare team.

We are delighted to be able to share our impressions with you and to have been able to make this extensive and exciting trip. Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions or would like to get in touch with a startup or network partner.

Stratosfare

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