HTX launches innovation centre for global tech start-ups to work with Home Team agencies

SINGAPORE: A new innovation centre looking at using technology to make Singapore safer was launched on Tuesday (May 30).

The centre, called Hatch, seeks to attract start-ups from Singapore and around the world.

They will work directly with Home Team departments, such as the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), to develop technology that will address public safety and security challenges.

Hatch is run by the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), which partnered with an innovation firm based in Israel – SOSA – to develop programmes.

At the launch on Tuesday, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam noted that the Home Team has “much more to do” in working with start-ups to develop “niche capabilities”.

“We have nearly 4,700 start-ups across 18 major industry verticals in Singapore. But if you look at the public safety and security sphere, the number of start-ups is very small,” said Mr Shanmugam.

“The Home Team has nine frontline departments, with diverse operations and requirements. There are a lot of opportunities for start-ups that focus on these areas.”

One of Hatch’s key programmes – the biannual Open Innovation Challenge – is an accelerator programme that will give start-ups a rare chance to immediately begin working with HTX’s scientists and engineers, as well as Home Team departments, to trial and prove their concepts in real-world scenarios.

For example, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) had called for technology to monitor personnel in indoor environments in real time.

Since the Open Innovation Challenge was launched in March, five start-ups have been selected for the programme. This was out of the 60 start-ups from Singapore, the US, UK, Israel and various industries that applied.

Each start-up will receive US$50,000 in funding and can get additional funding on a case-by-case basis.

Two of the selected start-ups, both based in Israel, demonstrated how their technology works at Tuesday’s launch event.

One of them – Vayyar, which produces 4D imaging radar sensors – is working with ICA on a radar-based scanning technology to see through and into materials.

“(This means) that you walk and you’re being scanned as you go with your luggage. There’s no need to stop, and you have a much better experience as a passenger for example,” Mr Assaf Kartowsky, Vayyar’s project manager of homeland security and public safety, told reporters.