13 Southeast Asian Startups Received Accolades at the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards
The ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards (Rice Bowl) has returned for another year of celebrating excellent startups within the ASEAN region. 13 leading ASEAN startups were named category winners at the 5th ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards (Rice Bowl) ceremony today with Singapore startup, Youtrip selected as the winner of Startup of the year award. The award ceremony graced by Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development (MED), YB Datuk Wira Dr. Mohd Hatta Md Ramli at Sasana Kijang, Bank Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
“This year, we work together with various partners to ensure the program a success. We collaborate with more than 50 ecosystem players, community leaders and supporters across South East Asia countries. Some play the roles as Ambassador to promote the spirit of Rice Bowl, some step up and hosted the event in their home country or lead the way as Rice Bowl Country Partners.” said Chairman of the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards and CEO of New Entrepreneurs Foundation (myNEF), Hamdi Mokhtar.
Organised by myNEF since 2015, the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards celebrates the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem. It also aims to increase the region’s visibility as a vibrant global hub for innovation and celebrate the startup ecosystem instrumental in driving that progress.
In 2019, a total of 3,000 entries were received from 10 countries across ASEAN. A panel of over 30 juries from across the globe comprising of entrepreneurs, investors, business advisors and coaches, media and startup development organisation, then evaluated the entries in 3 broad areas: actual and potential growth, scalability and impact.
“Amongst the benefit for nominees and finalists are upskilling training from the world’s leading universities sponsored by DigitalEdu.Today and Digital Ocean’s Cloud Credits and total worth USD1.1 million.“ he added. “Moving forward, we need to continue to work together to promote diligence, good governance, transparency and celebrate best practice as we design the next bigger and more impactful event for next year.” shared Hamdi.
