The GEAR Future City Festival 2.0: A nexus of innovation in the built environment

The GEAR Future City Festival (FCF) 2.0, a bi-annual event showcasing innovation in the built environment sector, was hosted today by Kajima Corporation, one of Japan’s oldest and largest construction and real estate firms. Organised by Kajima Development Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kajima Corporation, the second edition of the seminal festival brought together a dynamic convergence of thought leadership, startups, investors, and ecosystem players committed to shaping the future of urban living.

Organised in collaboration with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), The Future City Festival 2.0 was also a Built Environment Innovation Exchange (BEIX) event where BCA announced the launch of new challenge statements for Cycle 5 of their Built Environment Accelerate to Market Programme (BEAMP).¹

As a signal of Kajima’s intent towards solidifying its commitment to promoting talent development and technology commercialisation in the built environment, the festival witnessed the signing of a three-year memorandum of understanding between KAP and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

Kajima also announced the inaugural recipient of the Kajima-BIG Startup Award². Organised in collaboration with the Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the award aims to boost and strengthen industry participation from startups. The award was presented to HOO, a smart tap attachment that is designed to reduce water usage in a fun and interactive way. It achieves this by monitoring water consumption and encouraging consumers to adopt more sustainable habits through real-time data transmitted to their mobile phones. The brains behind HOO are four 17-year-old girls from Raffles Institution, distinguishing themselves as the youngest founders to join SMU’s Business Innovations Generator (BIG) incubation programme.

In further collaboration with SMU, a thought-provoking panel discussion titled "Surviving The Funding Winter: Insights from Top VCs" took centre stage and explored the nuanced strategies of venture capital in the face of the current socioeconomic climate. Against the backdrop of the festival’s innovative spirit, the session offered startups valuable insights into navigating the funding landscape during turbulent times. Moderated by James Chan, CEO of Ion Mobility, Southeast Asia’s emerging EV mobility company which raised a US$18.7M series A round in February 2023, and top venture capitalists Chik Wai Chiew, CEO of Heritas Capital, Murli Ravi, Partner at Tin Men Capital, and Fady Abdel-Nour, Partner at Antler, shared their perspectives on investment criteria, readiness, and the factors that set startups apart.

The event culminated with The GEAR Residency Programme Demo Day, which featured eight of its resident startups² to showcase the outcomes of their 6-month stint at The GEAR. One resident startup, Spinoff Robotics, completed a pilot drone flight to measure the drone’s precision to target and remove stains on The GEAR’s façade. Spinoff Robotics is an SUTD spinoff from the aerial innovation research lab. Another startup, WeavAir, has their devices installed around the building to collect building health and occupant data to provide insights on energy use and recommend potential improvements.

FCF 2.0 proved to be a premier event that serves as a catalyst for driving transformative solutions for future cities. Luke Wu, Head of Innovation at Kajima Development, emphasised the focus of the transformative potential of using The GEAR as a testbed and global community for the industry in his opening remarks. 

¹ For more information on BEAMP, please refer to the BEAMP Factsheet appended to the Media Kit.

² For more information on the Kajima-BIG Startup Award and The GEAR Startup Residency Programme, please refer to the The GEAR Future City Festival 2.0 Factsheet appended to the Media Kit.