Five Indonesian Startups Win 2024 ASEAN Digital Competition Awards

Five Indonesian startups succeeded in winning awards at the 2024 ASEAN Digital Awards (ADA). Indonesia automatically became the overall champion in this event for achieving the best digital innovation in the region.

The winners included Crustea and Shieldtag who won gold medals, Arthropology won the silver medal, and Jaramba and InCrane took the bronze medal. Meanwhile, Crustea is one of the participants DSLauncher, an incubation program from DS/X Ventures.

ADA 2024 (formerly known as the ASEAN ICT Awards) is a joint project of telecommunications ministries in ASEAN countries which aims to promote innovation and collaboration between governments, businesses and other institutions.

The Technology, Information and Communication (ICT) work competition at the ASEAN level has six categories, including Public Sector, Private Sector, Digital Content, Digital Startup, Digital Innovation and Digital Inclusivity.

"They contribute to innovation and implementation in every sector. We continue to encourage further startup development programs as well as digital downstreaming in strategic sectors," said the Director of Digital Economy, Director General of Aptika Kominfo, Bonifasius Pudjianto, in his official statement (1/2).

This year, this competition went through a complete participant selection and product curation process online. The 5 finalists representing Indonesia made presentations online in front of 13 ADA 2024 Final Judges consisting of 10 judges from each ASEAN country and 3 invited judges from China, Japan and Korea.

A look at Crustea

Crustea had time to follow DSLauncHER incubation program which was held in the middle of last year. Crustea was founded by Roikhanatun Nafi'ah with a mission to empower farmers to achieve the best results in aquaculture production.

"Previously, we didn't expect that we would be the first winner, because we are only less than two years old. This is our motivation to continue to grow the startup. We are trusted to provide benefits to farmers or other sectors," said Founder & CEO Crustea Roikhanatun.

Quoting from its official website, Crustea sees that pond farmers in Indonesia are faced with high operational costs, which have an impact on their productivity. For this reason, his party is developing environmentally friendly solutions to meet farmers' needs from pre-installation to post-harvest.

Some of the solutions offered are (1) IoT-based Eco-Aerators increasing productivity while reducing pool operational costs; (2) EBII System as a sensor to help farmers control the condition of their ponds anytime and anywhere; and (3) Smart Energy which aims to determine the level of efficiency and energy savings produced.

For your information, DSLauncHER is a program kick start from DS/X Ventures, an early-stage investment firm that is also part of media and technology startups DailySocial.id.