Sikh student and his Aussie team eye US$1m start up prize

By Asia Samachar Team | LONDON |

Singapore-born Kirath Singh is part of an Australian team that has made it to the London-stage of the Hult Prize, badged to be the biggest student social enterprise competition worldwide.

His team has advanced to be one of the world’s top 40 teams competing for the US$1 million prize.

After winning the Dubai round, Kirath, Brent Liang and Elisa Lillicrap from the University of Sydney Business School will spend the next five weeks in London developing their business, an app called Chance.io.

They will join some 100 top youth entrepreneurs around the world at the Ashridge Castle.

Born and raised in Singapore, Kirath is currently pursuing Advanced Computer Science and Finance.

Hult Prize is said to be the biggest student social enterprise competition worldwide. This year represents the 10th-year anniversary of the program with the challenge statement encouraging students to develop a business solution that tackles “10,000 youth unemployment in 10 years”, along UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The competition is held in three stages: regional, London Accelerator and UN Grand Pitch Round.

Selected out of 200,000 general application teams, each team competes with 40-60 teams at one of the 70 regional rounds around the world. The top team from each location is invited to spend five weeks in London to develop their business and prepare a pitch at the UN Headquarter for a $1 million seed funding from former US President Bill Clinton.

Coming out top from the Dubai Regional Round, Chance.io is the first Australian team in 10 years to have ever progressed to the castle accelerator.

The premise of Chance.io is to measure, analyse and develop soft skills for youth worldwide and connect them with employers. It is about allowing youth to upskill themselves and be more employable regardless of their socio-economic, religious, or racial background.

Asked about his appearance, Kirath told Asia Samachar: “The turban, beard, and roop (look) that I am blessed to have been gifted with has put me in the limelight. It is this roop that gives me the strength and courage to face all odds and succeed in bringing our idea to a global stage.”

So what’s next? Kirath and the team intend to bring the business to life.

As the competition progresses on a global level, the team hopes to inspire youth to be ambitious, and never fearful of the unknown.

“Youth worldwide deserve to have a chance to make a difference and change the world – especially those coming from a diverse background, a Sikh university student like myself,” he said.

Chance.io has kick launched a crowdfunding campaign. See link here.

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