“Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2022” Final Pitching Contest

October 28, 2022
Event Details

日本語

Co-led by UNDP and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to empower and invest in youth so that they can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship.  

The “Social Innovation Challenge Japan” is a business idea contest during which selected teams will pitch and showcase their SDG-focused business models and ideas to a panel of judges and participants. 

This year, following the SDG principle of ‘Leave No One Behind', the contest will shed a spotlight on businesses that help difficult-to-reach members of the community access support and services.   

What idea will win the prize this year? Please join us and listen to the applicants' passionate ideas! 

Programme：

  • 19:00 - Opening remarks
  • 19:10 – Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2022
    8 individuals/teams who previously passed the paper and video pitch screening will present their solutions. Each presentation will be followed by Q&A with the judges.
  • 20:40 - Panel talk by a guest speaker
  • 21:10 - Award Ceremony
  • 21:25 - Closing remarks | Ms. Cynthia Cheung, Youth Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Coordinator, Governance and Peacebuilding Team, Bangkok Regional Hub

Fees：Free 

Language：Japanese/English (Simultaneous interpretation available), Japanese sign language

Registration：Please register from here

Participating Teams (Finalists)

カーボンリサイクルプロジェクト

Carbon Recycle Project ～Possibility of CO2 as sustainable resource～

Reina Nomi

What are today’s most pressing global issues? What would you answer? For me it’s “Global warming” and the “food crisis”. What if there’s a way to solve both of them at the same time? Surprisingly, CO2 - you may think of it as a villain - has the potential to be a solution. In my future, CO2 will be a hero instead of a villain.

CeTrax

Supporting developing countries with Japanese clinical engineering technology “Medical device management and leaning system - CeTrax -”

Daisuke Inagaki, Redge

Redge will contribute to a world where all people can receive safe and quality health care. We aim to improve the medical system in developing countries, utilizing the medical device management/learning system with Japanese clinical engineering technology.

林業用高生育苗

"High-growth seedlings" to bring sustainability to the forestry industry

Ryosuke Himeno, WAKU

The Japanese forestry industry is losing its sustainability, with the ratio of reforestation at 30-40%. WAKU brings a sustainable solution by utilizing new technologies to produce "high-growth seedlings" that grow faster than usual.

yuni

Transforming Japan from a waste-producing country to a resource-rich country by changing incineration plants into recycling factories.

Kenshi Uchihashi, Yuni Inc.

We operate a service called “susteb” that collects and recycles used bedding. Not only do we recycle the used bedding destined to be incinerated, but we are also accelerating GX (Green Transformation) in society to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

海ちょっぴりタマゴクッキー

"Choppiri Egg Cookie" A cookie designed for people with food allergies

Hayato Kano, RelieFood.Inc

I have a brother who suffers from severe food allergies. I have seen up close how he has suffered and how difficult it is for him to go out to eat. We are developing products that will help people with severe food allergies, like him.

アフリカ農村部のデジタルプラットフォーム構築

Building the digital platform in African rural

Sho Nakata, Dots for Inc.

Dots for Inc. is building a digital platform in rural Africa, introducing affordable and decentralized telecommunication devices. Our goal is the digitization of the last frontier, providing a channel to markets that have been difficult for many organizations to enter.

冷蔵庫プロジェクト

REF PROJECT

Himawari Motojima

Using the power of business, the REF PROJECT enables women in developing countries to double their income and stabilize their lives while raising their children. The project lends fridges and capital to women so that they can easily establish a small shop at home and sell cold drinks.

Climatable

Climatable: A Carbon-free Dining Service for Foodies

Mayu, Quisine

Climatable tackles the climate crisis by helping restaurants serve climate-friendly meals, measuring their carbon footprint, and providing carbon-offset services, allowing for an environmentally responsible dining experience.

Judges

Koichi Kawaguchi

Senior Managing Director, CVC Asia Pacific Japan (CVC)

Koichi has been in the private equity investment at CVC and Advantage Partners. His prior experience includes as a management consultant at AlixPartners, KPMG, and Nomura Research Institute, whereby he led a number of cross-border M&A/PMI and turnaround assignments primarily for Japanese companies. Koichi also worked for IFC (the World Bank group) whereby he led infrastructure investments such as toll roads, railways, and container yards in developing countries.

He holds a BA from Kobe University of Commerce (now University of Hyogo) and a MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Koji Omachi

Managing Director, Corporate Transformation Advisory, Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory (BCMA), Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc.

Koji leads advisory business to provide solutions for environmental and social issues by business activities at Citigroup Global Markets Japan. By leveraging the basic knowledge of science and technology that learned at the School of Engineering, Tohoku University, he develops highly effective and impactful financial solutions by understanding the technical backing and issues that can be used to solve environmental and social issues such as climate change.

Furthermore, he is Japan Sustainability Champion who leads cross division team to promote ESG/SDGs business in Citi Japan and designs and gives lecture Citi sponsored course “SDGs and Finance” at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus.
Cynthia Cheung

Youth Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Coordinator, Governance and Peacebuilding Team, Bangkok Regional Hub

Cynthia is leading the social enterprise support programmes at the Youth Co:Lab, an initiative co-led by the UNDP and Citi Foundation. She works with young social entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific to economically empower the next generation through entrepreneurship and government innovation.

Prior to joining the UNDP, she founded multiple tech startups and social enterprises to enhance the livelihoods of underserved communities and mobilised the youth to travel and learn. She studied business and soon realised the power of technology when managing companies, hence later became a front-end developer and software consultant to develop analytics solutions for corporates.

She holds a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Bath and pursuing an MSSc at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Global Political Economy.
Atsuko Suzuki

Co-founder/Senior Coordinator, NPO ETIC. 

Born in 1971, graduated from Waseda University and joined ETIC. as a founding member. When ETIC. was incorporated as a NPO, she became the Executive Director.

Atsuko offers students, business persons and entrepreneurs consultation specializing in social careers and start-ups for more than 2000 people. She has also coordinated internship programs for over 100 start-ups so far.
Reiji Yamanaka

Managing Director, KIBOW Impact Investment Fund, KIBOW Foundation. Faculty at GLOBIS University.

Reiji Yamanaka is managing KIBOW Impact Investment Fund for social-purpose startups. He is also managing G-STARTUP Fund, G-GROWTH Fund, and G-CHALLENGE Fund to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem of GLOBIS. As a faculty member, he is teaching entrepreneurship-related courses at GLOBIS (MBA Program).

Prior to GLOBIS, he experienced business development at two healthcare startups. Before that, he worked for GLOBIS Capital Partners as a venture capitalist. He started his career at Canon.

He holds a BA in Economics at Hitotsubashi University and a MBA at Harvard Business School.

Talk session by DeafTwak
20:40-21:10

After the finalists’ pitching, and while waiting for the judges’ decision, we are happy to invite you to a panel talk with our special guest from Youth Co:Lab Alumnus Pakistan: Mr. Ali Shabbar, CEO of DeafTawk.

DeafTawk is an online platform that bridges the gap between the deaf community and the general public by providing a real-time sign language solution at the user’s fingertips.

DeafTawk is the winner of the National SDG innovation boot camp organized by Youth Co:Lab in 2018, and one of the regional social innovation champions at the Youth Co:Lab Summit in Vietnam in 2019.

Ali is visually impaired and initiated a disability inclusion business in Pakistan with his co-founder Wamiq Hassan. DeafTawk started to address the lack of sign language interpreters in Pakistan, which was a challenge that Wamiq himself faced:

At the panel talk session, Ali will present DeafTawk’s journey: How they started, what their challenges were and how they are contributing to society to leave no one behind!

We will also have a Q&A session after his presentation. Please join the session and don’t miss the chance to ask your questions to DeafTawk!

Speaker's Profile

deaftawk
Ali Shabbar

Ali Shabbar is the CEO of DeafTawk who is looking after the business development of DeafTawk. In his 14 years of career, he worked in both the development & corporate sectors. He was the founder of Pakistan's first mobile app awards and in 4 years of operation. To date, he launched DeafTawk in 5 different markets: Pakistan, Srilanka, Singapore, the US, and Denmark.