28 March 2021 – Datastream Digital Sdn Bhd (DST) awarded six teams under its InnoLab programme during a ceremony at its headquarters in Tungku Link.
From the Founders series, Team BetaPrime and Team OrderUp had received the Platinum award, while Team wai.not and Team Thryffy had received the Gold award, and a Special Mentions award was given to Super Squad.
For the Builders series, Team Leggo had won the Platinum award, where they have been awarded with a BND1,000 prize money from DST for their achievements, and an internship programme under DST.
Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC) Haji Mohammad Nazri bin Haji Mohammad Yusof presented the prizes.
The creation of DST’s InnoLab on February 27, 2020 was a main step towards enabling more new ideas and opportunities to take root and change the landscape of Brunei’s economic industry by encouraging new technologies and innovation to flourish in a thriving environment.
Under InnoLab, DST together with their educational partner, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), and entrepreneurship partner, Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) had also introduced Innovate@Programmes, of which the Innovate@Uni: Catalyst programme is geared especially towards students to cultivate their own creations, and develop them.
Yesterday’s event was held to commemorate the Catalyst programme under InnoLab, designed as a way to foster youth entrepreneurship and allow people to achieve their best potential using the numerous resources available at DST’s hands.
As an innovation programme, Catalyst has two areas of focus: Founders and Builders. The Founders Series is designed for those who seek to commence their entrepreneurial journey from scratch, through product ideation, business development and establishment. While the Builders Series are for those who may be more interested in building on the skills and knowledge they have already acquired in university. They will be spurred to address and solve existing, real-world problems with DST’s partners.
The participating teams’ journey in the Catalyst programme began in mid-September 2020, and over the next six months they had polished their ideas through weekly workshops, while being mentored by DST’s senior management team and received coaching from CEOs, investors and founders in the tech industry.
The result of their work culminated in the creation of their Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), which are simple prototypes that demonstrated their value to prospective customers. The teams pitched to a select a group of panelists made up of representatives from UTB, DARe and DST on March 20.
With the success of the first Cycle of Innovate@Uni: Catalyst, InnoLab will soon launch the second cycle of the programme, which focuses on university graduates needs. The second cycle will go on for over four months, where the participants will receive hands-on exposure to innovation’s best practices via workshops and coaching by Bruneian tech-founders, investors and business leaders.
-COURTESY OF BORNEO BULLETIN-
