Danone Nutricia Research looks to address both age-old and emerging health challenges with tech solutions

Allergy among children is on the rise and this put parents on edge every time they dine out with their little ones. This is but one of the many challenges facing parents globally. Parents want to give their child the best start in life and are in a relentless search for digital solutions that can take the stress and anxiety out of parenting.

While digital solutions targeting parents already exist today, few are scientifically or clinically-substantiated. This is because scientific and clinical research are not only capital intensive but also requires highly-specialised skillsets and tools.

Collaboration among startups and larger corporations is critical in driving innovations in HealthTech forward, especially when addressing vulnerable populations. The good news for startups operating in Southeast Asia is its proximity to Singapore, a pro-innovation country that provides easy access to multinational corporations (MNCs) who have set up innovation hubs in the country. These MNCs have the capital to invest in innovative solutions and the right network to test, scale and market these innovations to.

Take Danone Nutricia Research, as an example. This global research and innovation organisation has a team of 50 technologists and scientists based out of its Precision Nutrition D-Lab who are actively building scientifically-substantiated digital solutions to empower consumers including parents to make better nutritional decisions.

With over 100 years of scientific expertise, Danone Nutricia Research has an extensive network of highly-specialized labs and clinical research teams across the globe which startups, scientists and research institutes can potentially tap on.

Also read: How Echelon plans to FORGE corporate-startup relationships

Equally, Danone Nutricia Research recognizes the value that startups bring to the organisation – creativity, agility, speed of innovation, new perspectives and other complementary skillsets. They adopt an open innovation model where they actively collaborate with startups through partnerships and hackathons, to identify, build, test and turn new ideas into real-world solution that can be rolled out to a global audience.

One of their most recent initiative is the ASEAN Tech Awards 2019 where startups and teams of technologists from the ASEAN region are invited to submit innovative technologies/tools that can help parents enhance the detection and tracking of allergens based on adverse skin reactions.

Applications are open until 7^th June, and the finalists will be announced on the 10^th. Interested startups can check out the application criteria and timelines on the ASEAN Tech Awards 2019 website.

Danone Nutricia Research was among the companies that e27 partnered with in Echelon Asia Summit 2019 under FORGE, our corporate-startup matching programme. Through FORGE, Danone Nutricia explored possibilities in engaging startups across the region for innovation in healthtech.

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Photo: Unsplash

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