• Products and services which emerged winners competed at the Mapletree-SCCCI River Hongbao Hackathon – themed “Go Local with a Twist” – will be sold at the upcoming River Hongbao 2020 event.

SINGAPORE – In celebration of Lunar New Year, visitors to the upcoming River Hongbao 2020 (RHB) at The Float @ Marina Bay will be able to check out and buy inventive Singapore-inspired offerings from youths who won the entrepreneurship competition today.

Hosted at Mapletree Business City, RHBHacks 2020 is a competition which entrepreneur-minded youths from various tertiary institutions gathered and contested on their business proposals to a panel of judges. Organised for the second year, each of the top three winning teams was awarded with S$2,000 prize money, S$5,000 seed money and the opportunity to set up stall at RHB. The hackathon is sponsored by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree”) and is supported by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (“SCCCI”).

Mr Edmund Cheng, Mapletree’s Chairman said “Following a successful first run of RHBHacks last year, we are excited to continue our support and bring this entrepreneurship challenge back this year with the theme of “Go Local with a Twist”. As the hackathon is aligned with Mapletree’s Corporate Social Responsibility education pillar, we are proud to provide more students with the opportunity to pitch their ideas for a chance to run their very own stalls at River Hongbao.”

Mr Wong Chee Herng, Group MD & CEO of Straits Construction Group and Vice Chairman of SCCCI Youth Business Affairs Committee (YBAC) remarked that the aim of SCCCI YBAC is to promote Chinese entrepreneurial spirit, culture and values through knowledge sharing, deep collaboration and innovative business opportunities. RHBHacks is a good platform for students to take the first step in their entrepreneurial journey while immersing themselves in the rich Chinese New Year culture.

The Guest-of-Honour who graced the hackathon event at the Mapletree Business City today was Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Education.

The hackathon attracted 24 business proposals submitted by teams comprising two to five members, each formed from local and private tertiary institutions, and the participating youths ranged in age from 18 to 29.

As RHB is the result of numerous local community groups and corporations coming together to realise the large-scale riverside event, the theme of RHBHacks 2020 was “Go Local with a Twist”. The goal of the teams’ ideas is to reflect the spirit, culture or values that are symbolic of Singapore.

The youths first attended Mapletree retail workshop on 11 November 2019, where they were mentored by a retail expert from Mapletree.

After refining their brainstormed ideas and sending in their proposals, 9 teams were selected to take part in the hackathon today.

Last year, the three winning teams sold special balloons with LED lights, terrariums and denim apparel with customised designs.

The winning teams will be amongst the many stalls (including food, retail and games) set up at RHB which is running from 23 January to 30 January 2020. The team with the highest revenue earned at the end of RHB will receive another $300.

They will contribute 70 percent of their earnings to charities of their choice, and only keep the remaining 30 percent.

Please refer to list of winners below.