Kuala Lumpur, 4 July 2018 – BooksMart.my emerged as the winning team in the first OSKVIHELP Ideation Competition, beating the shortlisted six other contenders. In this Ideation Competition, OSK Ventures International (OSKVI) enlisted university students’ teams from HELP University to develop creative solutions to improve the way we live and work and generate ideas that could meet the demands of an ever-changing environment.
The BooksMart.my team, which consists of two students from HELP’s Faculty of Business, Economics and Accounting, Ivan Ten and Moo Shuk Mun, proposed an innovative peer-to-peer platform that allows students to exchange educational materials which lends a refreshing new twist to the book buying ballgame. When implemented, students can expect vast educational resources and common academic interests which focuses on convenience and connectivity with students within or from other universities. The team made an impressive social networking platform model that validated demand and price increase concept.
Two other top winners Help Squad and Team Novelty both focusing on transportation technology developed road safety awareness and ride sharing platform which leveraged on promoting convenience and safe traveling.
All seven finalists each proposed completely different and unique ideas to a panel of judges in their final pitching review at Plaza OSK. Teams were judged based on their capability in problem solving, value creation and market opportunity. More importantly, their ideas have to be implementable, sustainable and scalable.
All seven finalists each proposed completely different and unique ideas to a panel of judges in their final pitching review at Plaza OSK. Teams were judged based on their capability in problem solving, value creation and market opportunity. More importantly, their ideas have to be implementable, sustainable and scalable.
Launched in April, many ideas were received ranging from mobile applications to artificial intelligence and social enterprises, all catered towards innovation and better living.
“OSKVI is proud to collaborate with HELP University in our first Ideation Competition which has brought some fresh and exciting ideas from the students. It was also refreshing to see how engaged the students were and the palpable excitement during the workshop session with industry practitioners and mentors,” said Amelia Ong, Executive Director of OSKVI. “The Ideation Competition is a way in which we felt we could give back to the community by providing an avenue for our younger generation to develop ideas and drive innovative thinking as well as share our expertise and network as a venture capital investor,” she added.
“The teams worked very hard and came up with fantastic ideas in a very tight timeline. All proposals have the potential to be successful. We believe with the right mentoring and coaching, they can be actualised. The judges, OSKVI and HELP may continue to work with a selection of the teams to perfect their proposals and business models and prepare them for further capital raising sessions,” said Adam Chan, Executive Director of HELP International Corporation.
“All teams will have access to the HELP Business Analytics and Innovation Hub which will be located at Wisma ELM and our Subang campus. The hub will provide students of HELP, and from other tertiary institutions, great opportunities to be mentored and coached by techno-entrepreneurs and private equity providers and angel investors from Asia and world-wide. The HELP Business Analytics and Innovation Hub will be the largest such facility in Malaysia. Our mission for the HUB is to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship talents to contribute to the new Asian Renaissance,” he added.
As part of the competition, the participants also attended a 2-day workshop in which they were exposed to the basic fundamentals of entrepreneurship and starting a business/startup through sessions with professionals from company secretary, legal firm, marketing agency, recruitment firm, financial advisor, government agencies and industry entrepreneurs.
“I hope that this is the start, a small start, but a very significant start in our culture to encourage techno-entrepreneurship and to train people to incubate you. It may be a long process and a challenging one,” said Professor Datuk Dr Paul Chan, President and Vice Chancellor of HELP University, in his opening speech to the students.
“One of our main challenges was perfecting our presentation of the whole idea of our business in a comprehensible manner, but I think we managed to do that and we were very satisfied with the results,” said Ivan Ten, one half of the BooksMart.my duo. “All of this was due to the experiences that we have at HELP – through extracurricular activities that we have apart from our studies. This has helped shape our experience and gave us an avenue to learn. We also cultivated an attitude to learn more and to develop ourselves.”
About OSK Ventures International
OSK Ventures International Berhad (“OSKVI”) is a Malaysia-based private equity company that provides equity capital to companies ranging from revenue generating start-ups to late stage growth companies with operating profit track records seeking expansion capital. Its investmentfocus includes technology, education, consumer & retail, healthcare services and financial services.
For more information, please visit our website www.oskvi.com.
About HELP University
The HELP Education Group has been one of the leading education groups in Malaysia, with over 11,000 students enrolled in its various institutions including HELP University, HELP Academy, HELP College of Arts and Technology and HELP International School. HELP University, the main component of the Group, has been a pioneer and innovator in tertiary education in Malaysia since 1986, and has an established reputation and brand recognition in the education market.
For more details, please visit our website www.help.edu.my or call us at 03-2716 2000.
For media enquiries, kindly contact:
Mohd Farid Sumali
Manager, Group Corporate Communications
OSK Holdings Berhad
T : 03-2166 6225 ext. 318
E : farid.sumali@oskgroup.com
Juliet Chan
Deputy Director, Corporate Communications
HELP Education Group
E : juliet.chan@university.help.edu.my