EY startup incubator program announces its fifth cohort of startups

• Two (2) Malaysian startups among 16 in EY Foundry Cohort 5

The EY organization today announced the winning startup participants accepted into EY Foundry Cohort 5. Since 2018, EY Foundry has been helping early-stage tech startups accelerate business growth through piloting and scaling activities with the EY organization, in particular its Tax, Law and People Advisory Services teams.

EY Foundry helps startups to connect and network, with a focus on generating internal traction for the startups. Over the past four years, the EY Foundry program has incubated four cohorts, a total of 22 startups, facilitated product demonstrations to the EY organization and enterprise teams, and technology pilots within the global EY network.

The EY Foundry program will be run virtually and will include startups across Asia-Pacific including Australia, Cambodia, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The EY Foundry received a record number of applicants for the program, going from strength to strength in supporting startups across Asia-Pacific and the global EY network. It has been focused on increasing support for women-led enterprises, and this year eight out of the 16 startups are founded by women entrepreneurs, increasing the average across its five cohorts to 46%, more than double the global average.

The 16 startups in this year’s program were chosen based on their ability to provide disruptive technologies and solutions across the following areas of innovation:

• Services of Tomorrow – Optimizing processes and enhancing client experience:
  • Bizzi (Vietnam) – Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered software that uses cloud robotic process automation and machine learning techniques to automate invoice processing.
  • Olivia App (Philippines) – An expense management solution that allows the user to scan invoices and dictate expenses, eliminating the need for manual encoding.
  • Ever AI Technologies (Malaysia) – “No-code” artificial intelligence platform that democratizes access to artificial intelligence for those without programming experience.
  • Finnli (Australia) – Enabling businesses to invest in research and development by making it easier to finance their innovation risk.
• New Enterprise – Reimagining traditional tax, law and people advisory services using disruptive technologies to create new markets and business models:
  • Pajak (Indonesia) – A highly scalable and customizable Software as a Service (SaaS) tool that can be integrated into existing systems to automate tax processes.
  • Stemly (Singapore) – A SaaS solution that automates forecasting and optimization of a company’s supply chain and finance processes.
• Sustainability – Technology that delivers environmental, social and governance (ESG) and supply chain transformation resulting in net-zero or negative carbon emissions:
  • 4Zero (Australia) – Sustainability metrics technology that allows organizations to track and manage key processes in real time.
  • EPC Blockchain (Malaysia) – Blockchain technology that records energy investments to crowdfund energy projects and empowers the masses to mitigate climate change.
  • ESGnie (Singapore) – “No-code” business intelligence platform powered by scientific research that turns unstructured data into scientific analysis.
  • Evalue8 Sustainability (Australia) – Automates carbon foot-printing process, tracking of ESG projects (scope 1 to 3 emissions) and benchmarking to similar businesses to assess potential savings.
  • givvable (Australia) – Supplier sustainability intelligence platform that provides information relating to sustainability targets, and helps businesses uncover the sustainability profile of suppliers at scale.
• People and wellness – Embracing the future of work through continual learning and developments and employee wellness:
  • Betterteem (Philippines) – An AI-powered workplace solution that predicts employee churn, delivers well-being support and strengthens team engagement.
  • Flow of Work (Australia) – Connecting the skills and aspirations of employees to internal development opportunities to boost employee retention and engagement.
  • Leanmote (Australia) – Helping companies and their employees manage their performance and wellness through people data analytics.
  • Matae (Australia) – Enabling rapid, scalable and repeatable change in large organizations by systemizing collaboration between teams and leaders across all organizational levels.
  • Team Talks (Australia) – An employee experience tool that combines team building and learning of social skills to help leaders increase their team’s connection and collaboration.

Beginning in July 2022 and for a period of six months, the startups in Cohort 5 will participate in a range of activities that will give participants the tools to accelerate growth and expand their customer base. Participants will also receive Microsoft Azure credits worth US $150k to help develop their technology stack.

In addition, they will gain exposure to a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, including access to EY industry insights, subject matter professionals and technology collaborators. The EY Foundry program takes no equity stake, with participating startups maintaining full ownership and control of the business.

Ian McNeill, EY Asia-Pacific Deputy Tax Leader, says:

“The EY Foundry is going from strength to strength, growing to 11 countries across Asia-Pacific and attracting the highest number of applicants we’ve seen since the program’s inception. It is therefore only natural that we now have our largest cohort to date. We’re looking forward to welcoming the start-ups into the program and working with them to collaborate and tackle EY  clients’ most complex problems.”

Farah Rosley, Malaysia Tax Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd, says:

“It’s very encouraging to see eight ASEAN start-ups shortlisted to join the program this year and that Malaysia is represented once again in EY Foundry Cohort 5. We see collaboration with start-ups as an important way to help ensure that the pipeline of entrepreneurial talent continues and helps with the creation of the businesses and jobs of tomorrow. We are looking forward to collaborating with these disruptive technology startups to continue supporting the future of technology and business growth and improve how we service our people and help deliver greater value to our clients and the future of talent.”

Jesper Solgaard: EY Asia-Pacific Sustainability Tax Leader says:

“As one of the EY Foundry Innovation Area sponsors, I’m delighted to welcome all the startups to this year’s program. I’m particularly excited to begin collaborating with those in the Sustainability category and help them achieve their sustainability goals and create a positive lasting impact on the environment.”

For more information, visit www.ey.com/eyfoundry

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Notes to Editors

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This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd, a member of the global EY organization.