Asia Pacific University (APU) strikes again by scoring another win in the COVID-19 Business Startup Challenge 2021, walking away with a Grand Prize of RM100,000 seed funding for their compelling business model, Socialzy.

Organised by a global educational youth movement, the Diversity and Inclusion Youth Conference (DIYC), the Business Startup Challenge 2021 is designed to empower youths to create a social media campaign strategy that brings impact to the society. Participating teams were required to pitch a proof of a social media campaign that promoted the DIYC Movement.

APU’s Team Blue Star, comprising first year students Bryan Matthew Santosa, Hillarious Gilbert Widjaja and Yap Kit Ian conceptualised the online business model named Socialzy and associated it with a value proposition that met the criteria of wide outreach, effective delivery and sustainability, to cope with the disruptive global pandemic.

Driven by curiosity and eagerness to explore the world of entrepreneurship, the trio aspired to test their mettle by putting themselves into this challenge. They pitched their proposal to the judges with a convincing concept for a social media campaign strategy, strongly supported by their ‘Business Plan’ knowledge learnt in their Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship module.

Team Blue Star may have obtained the grand prize but the competition doesn’t end here. The winners will need to begin executing their startup within 21 days by fine tuning their business plan and drawing up a roadmap for their startup using the prize money. Team leader Bryan expressed the need to be prepared for any challenges and to never give up while on the road to become future entrepreneurs.

The students were introduced to the DIYC COVID-19 Business Startup Challenge 2021 by their lecturer, Ms Noraini Ahmad. She described them to be creative, courageous and innovative and even emphasised their confidence in pursuing their revolutionary business ideas.

The Program Coordinator of COVID-19 Business Startup Challenge, Rehhahn Tudball reassures that the trio will become part of the DIYC’s online community. This emphasised the DIYC’s commitment to supporting the winners in their entrepreneurial journey which means they will receive continuous access to funding, capacity development opportunities and training by the DIYC Movement.

As the grand prize winners, the trio stated that their biggest takeaway from the win was the effort and support from their dedicated APU lecturers and mentors. Their victory has also taught them to be eager to keep on learning in order to achieve greatness.

Heartiest congratulations to the victories of APU for putting Malaysia on the map for innovative brilliance!

Want to be part of the winning team? Why not consider APU’s Degree in Business Management? Leave your details to learn more!