Sino Group and Ping An Smart City Announce Finalists of ‘PropXTech’ Corporate Innovation Programme

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Ten finalists presented innovative products and solutions that can make a positive  impact on real estate industry

Presenting innovative technology products and  solutions, ten start-up companies have been selected from nearly 300 submissions  from 42 countries and cities to join ‘PropXTech’, a corporate innovation programme  jointly launched by Sino Group (the ‘Group’) and Ping An Smart City (‘Ping An’). The organisers and participants share the belief in driving the development of the  Property-Technology (PropTech) industry, innovate real estate in the region, and  contribute to smart cities in all aspects from property development to management.  

Mr Andrew Young, Associate Director (Innovation) of Sino Group and PropXTech  Project Leader said, ‘The programme opened for applications in October 2020, and  we were very encouraged by the overwhelming response from hundreds of  entrepreneurs and start-ups from around the world. Following a competitive interview  and pitch process, ten start-ups demonstrating exceptional creativity and potential  were selected to join the innovation programme. Selections were made based on the  strengths of the companies’ clear business models; sales, engineering, scalability and  operational capabilities; and their ability to address customer experience, efficient  processing, and financial impact.’ 

The finalists presented PropTech products and services spanning physical,  experiential and digital offerings. Some of the PropTech innovations include*: Welbot – An adaptive robotics application for construction automation. By  collecting on-site raw data, the system can provide big data and artificial  intelligence (AI) algorithm construction framework for complex environments in  a short time. Additionally, the start-up, from Hong Kong, has created a cable  robotic cleaner for buildings and windows, that uses environmentally friendly  ionic pure water, and does not require a gondola, making the cleaning of high rise buildings more cost effective, sustainable, and easier to install and operate. 

Valpas – a smart living well-being solution that could make a dramatic impact  on the quality of hotels and health of guests. Hailing from Finland, Valpas has designed smart bed legs that have a special coating and colour that together with the CO2 emitted by sleeping guests attract and trap newly arrived bed  bugs in the bed legs. The product is patented, certified, eco-friendly, toxic-free  and chemical-free. 

Archilyse – The start-up from Switzerland has designed a cloud-based service,  offering machine learning and AI to replace subjective assessment of  architectural qualities. The outcome is a holistic solution for analysis and  automated evaluation with objective data to facilitate decision making, identify  qualitative KPI and increase process efficiency significantly. In addition to data  analytics, a digital modelling element can generate 3D BIM future-ready  models from paper or PDF plans, which optimises and accelerates the process  at the modelling stage of building development. 

Vutility – an IoT device designed in the USA, Vutility is an energy monitoring  solution that makes sub-metering easier and provides real-time, high  resolution, non-intrusive accessible, insightful and actionable data about  energy consumption, to improve operational and energy efficiency. 

The four-month programme kicked off in March 2021 and is now in the ‘Acceleration  Phase’. Whilst receiving comprehensive mentorship from Sino Group, Ping An’s  experts and world-renowned veterans, the finalists are also gaining access to the  Group’s innovation ecosystem to develop pilot and proof-of-concept projects in Hong  Kong and Greater Bay Area, meeting with the Group’s various business units and  partners to explore potential business scenarios and achieve synergic collaborations,  as well as testing and fine-tuning their solutions in a real-world environment.