Coffee Talk Tuoi Tre Start-up Award 2024: Meeting of green startups

The 10 outstanding startups of the Tuoi Tre Start-up Award 2024 program with the theme Green Startup Inspiration were announced at the Coffee Talk program with the expert council on the morning of November 4.

At the program called Coffee Talk - 10 typical start-ups of Tuoi Tre Start-up Award 2024 interacted with 7 members of the Evaluation Council - Photo: QUANG DINH

These are 10 start-ups that have successfully passed the preliminary round with more than 200 profiles introduced and received from many sources with green startup criteria, as well as orientation to practice ESG criteria in the process of building and operating a business.

Inspiring green startups

Representatives of the startups met and discussed directly with the Evaluation Council to evaluate potential startups, and from there, considered and judged startups for the Green Startup Star awards (worth 100 million VND) and Green Startup Inspiration awards (worth 50 million VND).

Journalist Tran Xuan Toan - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper, member of the Evaluation Council - gave the opening speech of the Coffee Talk program - Photo: QUANG DINH

Speaking at the opening of the program, journalist Tran Xuan Toan - deputy editor-in-chief of Tuoi Tre newspaper - sent his congratulations to the potential start-ups present at the program.

He said that in the spirit of Coffee Talk, the biggest thing the program hopes for is to inspire young people in Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country to start a business through the stories of start-ups.

At the same time, chatting and exchanging with experienced members of the Evaluation Council can also be an opportunity for startups to learn more to continue their startup journey.

The members of the Evaluation Council attending the program are long-time experts in the field of investment, startups as well as supporting the startup community: Ms. Trinh Thi Hien Tran - Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union, Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc Trai - Chairman of the Vietnam Packaging Recycling Alliance (PRO Vietnam), Mr. Don Lam - General Director and Founding Shareholder of VinaCapital Group, Mr. Tran Hung Huy - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), Mr. Nguyen Nhat Anh - Deputy Director of BSSC Young Business Incubator and journalist Tran Xuan Toan - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper.

10 typical start-ups participating in Coffee Talk - Tuoi Tre Start-up Award 2024

AirX Carbon

BUYO Bioplastics

VOX Cool Company Limited

Solano Energy

Saty Rice Farm

MediExpress Vietnam Technology Joint Stock Company

Wesolife

SiGen Company Limited

TTK Global Ventures

A Oi Concept

The potential of green energy startups

Among the 10 startups that reached the final round of the Tuoi Tre Start-up Award selected by the Evaluation Council, it is noteworthy that there are many startups in energy, an important field of the economy as well as life, with ideas that are not only innovative but also very practical.

As the first start-up to present, Mr. Nguyen Phu Sinh - co-founder of VOX Cool - introduced a cold thermal energy storage technology, called "cold battery", integrated with AI and IoT ecosystems, helping to save costs and reduce carbon emissions in cold supply chains, including cold storage and cold transportation in Vietnam.

Mr. Nguyen Phu Sinh - co-founder of VOX Cool presented to the Appraisal Council - Photo: QUANG DINH

Mr. Sinh said that although the company is a new start-up, it has been highly appreciated by customers for its efficiency and has had its first customers, including large enterprises that have committed to signing contracts to install cold batteries in containers to transport frozen goods.

One strength of Vox Cool, according to Mr. Sinh, is that they can even "turn competitors into customers" thanks to being able to provide production materials instead of having to import them from China or India.

Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc Trai asked many questions to start-ups at Coffee Talk - Photo: QUANG DINH

Sharing with Vox Cool, Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc Trai - Chairman of the Vietnam Packaging Recycling Alliance (PRO Vietnam) - highly appreciated this startup project, saying that the startup has a long-term orientation and competes in technology, not just products, which is suitable for green startups.

However, Mr. Trai said that businesses need to create a model that combines a clear vision, more feasible logic in the implementation process, and has an implementation orientation. And can also expand the customer base in their B2B business model.

As the second start-up to participate in the program, the two co-founders of Solano Energy, Tran Tuan Anh and Pham Anh Khoa, took the stage together to introduce the new energy model with the distributed storage solution that Solano Energy is implementing.

Two representatives of Solano Energy: CEO Tran Tuan Anh (left) and CCO Pham Anh Khoa introduce Solano Energy's new energy model at Coffee Talk - Photo: QUANG DINH

According to Mr. Tuan Anh, Solano's vision will be to support the Vietnamese electricity industry in transforming from a centralized production model that uses a lot of fossil energy to a decentralized energy production model that uses a lot of renewable energy.

He believes this is a ripe opportunity to start a business, seeing that the energy market in Vietnam has huge potential, and has grown more than 200 times in renewable energy in the past 3 years.

The members of the Appraisal Council, including Mr. Don Lam, Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc Trai and Mr. Tran Hung Huy, considered this a good idea and asked many questions to Solano Energy about the commercial model, cost, selling price as well as evaluation of competitors.

Mr. Tran Hung Huy - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) - participated in the Judging Council of Tuoi Tre Start-up Award for the first time - Photo: QUANG DINH

CEO Tran Tuan Anh said that Solano's price is in the mid-to-high segment. At the same time, he assessed that people currently do not know much about storage batteries, and their main competitors are cheap storage batteries mostly from China, which they generally assess as being of low quality.

Mr. Don Lam thinks that Solano should focus on software systems, because according to him, battery production is very difficult to compete with China, which is very strong.

Mr. Don Lam - a member with a lot of experience working with start-ups - has accompanied Tuoi Tre Start-up Award for 5 consecutive years - Photo: QUANG DINH

Mr. Nguyen Nhat Anh - Deputy Director of the Young Business Incubator representing the Youth Startup Support Center (BSSC) participated in the Coffee Talk on the morning of November 4 - Photo: QUANG DINH

Sharing about the Tuoi Tre Start-up Award with this year's start-up faces, Mr. Tran Xuan Toan - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper - said that this is the 5th year that Tuoi Tre Newspaper, together with the Vietnam Packaging Recycling Alliance (PRO Vietnam) and accompanying units such as the Youth Startup Support Center (BSSC), VinaCapital have persistently implemented the Tuoi Tre Start-up Award program.

With the past 2-month journey of the Tuoi Tre Start-up Award 2024 program, journalist Tran Xuan Toan shared that the 10 start-up faces present at Coffee Talk are the results of many rounds of evaluation from the Evaluation Council as well as "evaluation" by the program's readers.

"Readers have responded in articles introducing startups, many of which highly appreciate the ideas of startups associated with sustainable development as well as evaluate the feasibility and ability to mobilize resources of startups," said Mr. Toan.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/coffee-talk-tuoi-tre-start-up-award-2024-cuoc-gap-go-cua-nhung-nguoi-khoi-nghiep-xanh-20241104111216801.htm