Teamie, a Singapore-based education-collaboration startup won first prize in the Startup Arena. Innova Tech’s anti-loss device helped then bag second prize, while Start Now’s platform for volunteer recognition and tracking garnered third place. Teamee won US$10,000 plus Lenovo laptops, Nokia mobile phones, SkySQL premium subscription package and a Kindle Fire. Runners-up also won laptops mobile phones, tablets and premium subscriptions.

The 16 other startup companies who pitched their ideas in the Arena won well-deserved recognition for their ideas and — more importantly, their proverbial ‘foot in the door’ of investment houses and incubators. The organizers and sponsors won additional brand awareness, while the participants won gems of information from the coffee chats with industry experts. The organizer (Penn-Olson) pulled this off in their first time trying, and acknowledged the fact that it was a first time as well for their team (usually scattered across Asia) to come together under one roof, so that’s got to be a chalk mark on the win column as well.

Startup Arena Winners

Teamie‘s winning pitch was for a collaboration platform for students, parents, teachers and academic institutions by using the Internet to help kids with schoolwork and keeping parents up to date with their scholars’ progress.

Innova Technology featured a card (retailing at $30, already raked in over $10,000 after its launch) that syncs with your phone via bluetooth and RFID, sending a reminder if you forget to bring the card along — very helpful for someone like me who keeps forgetting his wallet in the office.

Start Now presented an online partnership between volunteers and non-government organizations (NGO). Volunteers can check for feedback, news and updates to their activities, while NGOs can manage volunteers into groups for easy organization quick scheduling.

Check out the other startups that pitched at the Arena here.

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