OPPO recently announced the 15 tech startups short-listed for the Global Final Demo Event of the 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge following the successful completion of regional demo events in Boston, Shenzhen, and Bangkok earlier this month. The 15 startups and their innovations will meet in Singapore in October where they will compete for a spot in the global top 5.
The 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge received a total of 687 innovative proposals from 66 different countries and regions focusing on the two entry categories of “Inspiration for People” and “Inspiration for the Planet.” Following a thorough evaluation process, the top 15 solutions in each region were selected to take part in three regional demo events in Boston, Shenzhen, and Bangkok.
Hosted by OPPO Research Institute in partnership with the Harvard GSAS Entrepreneur Community, the first regional demo event of 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge was held at the Harvard Club of Boston on July 27. During the event, 15 selected startups from Europe, the United States, and Israel pitched their solutions to the judging panel. Following their pitches, entrants also had the opportunity to engage in in-depth technical discussions with Jason Liao, head of OPPO Research Institute, and executives from Harvard Business School and investment institutions.
On July 31, the second regional demo event took place in Shenzhen in partnership with the China University-Enterprise Collaboration Innovation Alliance (CUEC). OPPO Vice-President and President of China Market Bobee Liu and OPPO Health Lab Head Leo Zeng both attended the event, where they were joined by other judges from Qualcomm Ventures, Amazon Web Services, GSMA 5G IN, and Beihang Investment. During the event, attending media and guests also voted for the winners of the “Media Choice” and the “Virtuous Innovation” awards.
The last regional demo event took place in Bangkok last Aug. 7. In partnership with one of the Asia-Pacific region’s most influential universities, Chulalongkorn University, OPPO also invited experts from Amazon Web Services and Deloitte to participate in the judging process.
Based on the four criteria of feasibility, innovation and originality, long-term potential, and social value, the professional judging panels from each of the three regional demo events have now selected their top 5 respective proposals to make up the short list of 15 entrants that will compete in the global final of 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge.
To further facilitate the development of the proposals via internal and external collaboration, OPPO will partner with KPMG to hold the Acceleration Camp prior to the Global Final Demo Event. During the camp, senior executives from OPPO will join technology experts, investors, and industry partners to provide assistance to the top 15 global startups.
Following this, the top 5 winning solutions will be selected at the Global Final Demo Event. Each winning startup will be awarded a prize of US$50,000 along with opportunities to help further build their ideas, including productization and commercialization opportunities, strategic partnerships, investment, and exposure at global technology events.