Turning Knowledge into Business at GKHF Jan 2025
Leave a Nest Singapore successfully conducted the 2nd edition of Global Knowledge Hub Forum (GKHF) on 22 Jan 2025. Continuing from the 1st edition in Aug 2024, GKHF Jan 2025 brought together 101 global ecosystem players from diverse backgrounds, including MNCs, SMEs, startups and government organisations, to exchange their knowledge and spur the creation of new business.
This edition of GKHF saw 3 exciting main sessions, including panel sessions, special presentations, and pitches from startups. Meanwhile, 25 companies and government-related entities, representing 5 different countries, exhibited at the booth hall, and participants got to sit down with each other to have deep discussions at the 1-on-1 meeting space. Highlights of the day include an award presentation ceremony for Leave a Nest's L-GRANT Entrepreneur LIFE-TECH Award, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exchange ceremony between Japanese and Singaporean startups.
Opening remarks
GKHF Jan 2025 began with opening remarks from this edition's project leader Mr. Leeyon Lim, who spoke on Singapore's position as a global business and knowledge hub. He challenged everyone present to exchange knowledge with other participants and create new global business together.
Following this, Managing Director of Leave a Nest Singapore Dr. Kihoko Tokue briefly introduced the inaugural L-GRANT Entrepreneur LIFE-TECH Award programme, and how it contributes to the creation of new knowledge. She then presented the Grand Award to Dr. Gokula Krishnan Ramachandran, who will receive 500,000 JPY in prize money. Dr. Gokula gave his thanks to Leave a Nest for the opportunity and support provided to him throughout the course of the programme.
Main Session 1
The event kicked off in earnest with the first main session of the day, titled “Special Presentation and Panel Discussion on Technology Implementation and Global Collaboration in the Built Environment Scene”. As the title suggests, the session first saw a presentation from Mr. Satoshi Yamamoto, Section Manager at Ricoh, who introduced Ricoh's technology innovations in the built environment sector, particularly their digital twin technology.
This was followed by a panel session featuring Ms. Tina Chua, Deputy Director of USS IEO; Mr. Eugene Choy, Managing Director of NovaPeak; Dr. Kush Agarwal, CEO of WaveScan Technologies; and moderated by Mr. Michael Maekawa, Director of Leave a Nest Singapore. As technology providers and policy experts, the panellists gave their insights on the innovations in the built environment sector in Singapore, as well as Singapore's role as a knowledge hub in the global built environment scene.
Main Session 2
The second main session was the Global Bridge Program Showcase Session. Here, Ms. Haruka Sakurai introduced Leave a Nest's Global Bridge Program, which encompasses several initiatives to connect global ecosystems such as those organised by AMEICC and EnterpriseSG. This session focused specifically on bridging Singapore and Japan, and saw pitches from six Japanese and Singaporean startups who are actively expanding into each other' s markets with Leave a Nest. This was a show of the global knowledge gathering in and originating from Singapore.
The session was capped off with an MoU exchange ceremony between IntegriCulture Inc., a Japanese cellular agriculture pioneer, and Cuprina Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean startup with wound care solutions. The MoU details joint research that could revolutionise the cell culture industry, and is also a success story of GKHF coming full circle. The two signatory companies first met at the 1st GKHF in Aug 2024.
Main Session 3
The final main session of the day was a panel session by UntroD Capital Asia, a Leave a Nest Group venture capital, with the theme of “Trials and Triumphs in Doing Business Overseas”. The panel featured Mr. Kelvin Yeo, Business Development Director of Accelerated Materials; Dr. Mohammad Sherafatmand, Founder & CEO of Hydroleap; Mr. Ellis Chua, CCO of ProfilePrint; and moderated by Mr. Henry Tao, Principal Investor at UntroD Capital Asia. The panellists discussed the toughest obstacles in expanding their business overseas, and enlightened the audience with their unique takes on what was necessary to succeed in doing business abroad.
Booth Sessions / 1-on-1 Meetings
After each of these 3 main sessions, participants networked freely in the booth hall, where 25 exhibitors representing 5 different countries showed off their posters and products. Meanwhile, in the 1-on-1 meeting room, participants had deep, meaningful discussions towards progress in their collaborations in a semi-closed setting. The booth sessions and 1-on-1 meetings facilitated direct communication between the different ecosystem players present, and hence, the exchange of knowledge and inspirations for new business creation.
Leave a Nest would like to express our thanks to AMEICC, Glocalink, Ricoh and UntroD, the partners for GKHF Jan 2025, as well as all the exhibitors and participants for making this event a successful one.