Mapletree supports student-led conference, UNICON 2023
06 Feb 2023
- Mapletree’s inaugural support benefitted more than 500 participants over two days
- Aligned to Mapletree’s education pillar under its corporate social responsibility efforts
SINGAPORE – Mapletree Investments (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) is pleased to support UNICON 2023, a two-day student-led conference by undergraduates from the National University of Singapore (“NUS”) Entrepreneurship Society (“NES”). Held at Mapletree Business City’s (“MBC”) Town Hall from 27 to 28 January 2023, the in-person event gathered outstanding young entrepreneurs from across Asia to inspire and compete through a series of activities.
Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman of Mapletree said, “We are glad to support UNICON 2023 because it is a platform which boosts the learning, and knowledge for these budding and accomplished young entrepreneurs. The event is also aligned to Mapletree’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) pillar commitment to education. We look forward to supporting more of such meaningful activities for the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
The Guest-of-Honour on the opening day of UNICON 2023, Minister of State (“MOS”) for Trade and Industry & Culture, Community and Youth, Mr Alvin Tan, launched the event together with Mr Wan Kwong Weng, Mapletree’s Group Chief Corporate Officer and Mr Lee Jun Liang, President of UNICON 2023. In his opening address, MOS Alvin Tan said, “UNICON 2023 served as a platform to inspire youths in innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation is critical in enabling us to think out of the box and seize the new opportunities in an ever-evolving world. I congratulate NUS Entrepreneurship Society for organising UNICON 2023 to inspire our current and future entrepreneurs.”
Over the two days, UNICON 2023 featured over 28 speakers, 13 Startups and 10 TigerLaunch finalist teams. At the event, more than 500 aspiring young entrepreneurs gained useful insights from notable keynote speakers. They also participated in panel discussions and fireside chats with venture capitalists, founders of companies and industry experts from established firms such as Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India and Speedoc on a range of topics, including how to navigate challenging market conditions as a startup and the possibilities of blockchain technology.
Startups also participated in new segment “Startup Showcase”, where they have a booth space and airtime to showcase their businesses to participants and network.
In addition, Mapletree also extended its support to the top three finalists of the Asia leg of TigerLaunch (see Annex), a global entrepreneurship competition, with cash prizes of S$3,000, S$1,500 and S$500. The competition was organised by Princeton Entrepreneurship Club in partnership with NES.
Photos:
Available for download here: https://bit.ly/3Rr25oa
Photo Credits: Mapletree Investments
MOS Alvin Tan delivered the opening address at UNICON 2023 on 27 January
(From left to right) Ms Kirbie Koh, Vice President Externals, UNICON 2023; Mr Wan Kwong Weng, Group Chief Corporate Officer, Mapletree; MOS Alvin Tan; Mr Lee Jun Liang, President, UNICON 2023; and Ms Cloey Wong, Vice President Internals, UNICON 2023 launched the event with a ribbon-cutting ceremony
(From left to right) Mr Wan Kwong Weng, Group Chief Corporate Officer, Mapletree; MOS Alvin Tan; and Mr Lee Jun Liang, President, UNICON 2023 toured the startup showcase booths
Participants had the opportunity to meet startups during the booth showcase at UNICON 2023
“The Future of Digital Financing” was one of a series of insightful fireside chats, panel discussions and keynotes by a panel of industry leaders and experts at UNICON 2023
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ABOUT MAPLETREE
Headquartered in Singapore, Mapletree is a global real estate development, investment, capital and property management company committed to sustainability. Its strategic focus is to invest in markets and real estate sectors with good growth potential. By combining its key strengths, the Group has established a track record of award-winning projects, and delivers consistent and high returns across real estate asset classes.
The Group manages three Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and seven private equity real estate funds, which hold a diverse portfolio of assets in Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom (“UK”) and the United States (“US”). As at 31 March 2022, Mapletree has assets under management of S$78.7 billion, comprising office, retail, logistics, industrial, data centre, residential and student accommodation properties.
The Group’s assets are located across 13 markets globally, namely Singapore, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK, the US and Vietnam. To support its global operations, Mapletree has established an extensive network of offices in these countries.
For more information, please visit www.mapletree.com.sg
Annex
TigerLaunch (Asia) Finalist Results
EzPz – Grand Champion S$3000 cash & Trip to TigerLaunch Finals in Princeton (inclusive of Flight & Accommodation)
Justin Loh (Co-Founder), Lim Sheng Yang (Co-Founder), Yeow Bok Seng (Co-Founder); National University of Singapore
Ezpz is a medical device company established on the principles of origami engineering with a purpose of revolutionising tube based medical procedures. Ezpz currently aims to re-invent the urinary catheter through minimising catheter lumen to (1) decrease trauma to urethra on insertion; (2) allow increased frequency of catheter change and (3) disrupt biofilm formation.
Marymount Labs – 2nd Place S$1500 cash
Zacchaeus Chok (Founder); National University of Singapore
Marymount Labs is developing no-code digital tools for GP clinics to manage and analyse their clinical data, with nearly 50 clinics onboarded in less than 3 months. By federating siloed chronic disease data from GP clinics, we are building a comprehensive knowledge graph that would eventually form the basis of our proprietary recommendation engine for preventive health interventions.
Snap Robotics – 3rd Place S$500 cash
Aaron Chooi (Co-Founder), Saikrishna Dontu (Co-Founder); Singapore University of Technology and Design
Snap Robotics has developed a novel multimodal soft gripper that can switch its grasping modes and geometry to seamlessly manipulate a wide range of objects from large and heavy containers and gears, to pinching thin objects like wires, slices, and bolts, to scooping granular objects such as rice and beads. Snap Robotics' multimodal soft gripper (MMSG) is the perfect tool to handle and assemble a wide range of items in the manufacturing and packaging industry. The company's solution uses a low-cost collaborative manipulator equipped with the Multimodal Soft Gripper (MMSG) and a simple vision system for the automation of assembly and packaging tasks.
