Malaysia’s TMC wins Asean round of IBM SmartCamp

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By Digital News Asia | Oct 17, 2013

Company had developed cloud-based early warning system to predict landslides
Advances to the semifinals that will be held in Istanbul from Oct 30- 31

The winning team from Pembinaan TMC Sistem (l-r): Marcus Yap, cofounder and head of R&D; Wong Joe Foong, cofounder and CEO; Alex Wong, cofounder and sales director; and Garrett Fernandez, senior consultant.

SLOPE monitoring enterprise Pembinaan TMC Sistem Sdn Bhd beat five other companies from South-East Asia to win the regional round of IBM SmartCamp 2013.

Pembinaan TMC Sistem developed a cloud-based early warning system to predict landslides, IBM said in a statement.

“We were surprised to be the winner; we had very strong competitors from our fellow Asean finalists,” said its chief executive officer and cofounder Wong Joe Foong.

“With this win, we hope to have the opportunity to collaborate with IBM especially in terms of SoftLayer and Informix technologies, and develop a solution that’s reliable and proven in the marketplace,” he added.

Wong said that idea came after he had had a first-hand experience with a landslide a few years ago. “If I had left home earlier, I would have been a victim of the landslide,” he added.

Six companies across South-East Asia were selected from 54 applicants to compete at IBM SmartCamp Asean 2013, held on the sidelines of the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES 2013), from Oct 10-11.

The other five participants were: ConnectedHealth and Gametize Pte Ltd from Singapore; Wegen Tech (Philippines); BlueBox Technology Co Ltd (Thailand); and Peritus Solutions Sdn Bhd (Malaysia); which pitched ideas related to healthcare, energy, agriculture and education, IBM said.

Launched three years ago, IBM SmartCamp is part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Programme aimed at identifying early stage entrepreneurs who are developing business ventures that align with the company’s Smarter Planet vision.

Over 500 new businesses in various areas including green energy, health care and transportation have benefitted from this programme. IBM claimed.

The winner from this round will advance to the semifinals that will be held in Istanbul, Turkey from Oct 30-31, to qualify for the final round that will be held in the United States in February, 2014.

The judges at IBM SmartCamp Asean were the Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the US State Department, Lorraine Hariton; Multimedia Development Corporation chief operating officer Ng Wan Peng; director of the Technology Ventures Division at the Malaysian Trade Development Corporation Mohammad Hazani Hassan; and IBM’s director of ISV and developer relations for Growth Markets, Mauricio Sucasas.

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