The panel of jury members comprising of local industry experts such as Norhizam Kadir, Vice President, Growth Ecosystem Development of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Fadzarudin Shah Anuar, Chief Executive Officer of Fashion Valet, Leon Foong, Chief Executive Officer of Socar Malaysia, Dinesh Ratnam, Director of the CEO’s Office of Catcha Group and Sachin Singh, Managing Director of Total Oil Malaysia, selected the winners of the 2018-2019 Startupper of the Year by Total Challenge in Malaysia.

The finalists were required to share their ideas and concepts through a 15 minutes presentation to the jury members.

The top three winners and the top female entrepreneur winner were then selected accordingly and presented with their awards at an official ceremony held on 1 March 2019 at Common Ground, Bukit Bintang.

The top three winners of the Startupper of the Year by Total Challenge in Malaysia are:

1. Abdul Rahman Bahasa, Non-Invasive Jaundice Meter

Non-invasive jaundice meter designed with hand-held configurations for the use of measuring jaundice levels on a baby without taking any blood (pain free!) and the jaundice levels can be monitored remotely in real time through a mobile application.

2. Wong Shy Kit, Luminary – Light2O

Light2O is an off-grid and autonomous device that utilises solar thermal energy to distil any water sources into clean drinkable water.

The company also conducts change management and social impact assessment for people and environment as well.

3. Vincent Chong Jung Ng, Nerrativ

Nerrativ is a social enterprise that connects enterprises, government agencies and NGOs with CSR with data driven projects.

These projects adopt data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to produce Data Stories, Data Insights and Data Solutions with a medium to long term impact.

The top three winners will receive financial support of €12,500, €7,500 and €5,000 respectively to fund their projects.

The winners will also receive personalised support and coaching from Total Oil Malaysia, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Fashion Valet, SOCAR Malaysia and Catcha Group as well as a communications campaign to publicise their project.

The winner of the Top Female Entrepreneur award, a new addition to the 2018-2019 Challenge to encourage and support women in business, went to:

Nur Azre Abdul Aziz, Note-Ster

Note-Ster is designed to provide students with an easy and hassle free way to find, share, rate, and study educational content catered for specific needs and level.

The 2018-2019 Startupper of the Year by Total Challenge, held simultaneously in 55 countries 1 — 37 of which are in Africa, 11 in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region, 4 in the Americas, and 3 in Europe — reaffirms Total’s commitment to social and economic development in host countries worldwide.

By helping innovative young entrepreneurs to realise their projects, the Challenge strengthens the local social fabric.

The second Startupper of the Year by Total Challenge received nearly 50,000 entries, of which more than 15,000 were fully completed. In all, 825 finalists presented their projects to a jury of experts, with 165 winning prizes.

The first prize winner in each country will see their project presented to the international grand juries that will pick the six Grand Winners from all 55 countries.