OPPO has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to host the recent Youth Innovation Acceleration Camp. The event, supported by the China Alliance of Social Value Investment (CASVI), was held from December 14 to 17, 2021, in Shenzhen, China.
A total of 20 youth-led tech startups, ranging from angel-invested ones to those with Series A funding, were invited to attended this year’s camp, which focused on three main themes: environmental protection, digital inclusion, and health and wellbeing. The camp’s goal is to empower social entrepreneurs, and to connect them with investment, industrial, and academic resources to further develop their business, and to help achieve the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“OPPO is proud to be a supporter of young people and their dreams, with whom we have a long history of working together to better achieve the SDGs,” said Sonia Miao, OPPO Associate Vice President, Head of Strategy and Business Development. “Aligned with our brand mission of ‘Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World’, OPPO is taking actions to contribute to sustainable development, with focus on key areas such as environmental protection, youth empowerment, digital inclusion as well as health and wellbeing. The road to achieve SDGs is not an easy one, and as with any form of innovation and entrepreneurship. This requires us to embrace our passions, dare to explore, and move forward with optimism and confidence. At OPPO, we fully advocate for such values, which are embodied in our recently-launched brand propositioning, ‘Inspiration Ahead'”
The camp invited industry partners and investors to conduct sessions on several topics, including business analysis, marketing, impact financing and design thinking. The camp also held a start-up fair and one-on-one mentoring sessions to help the startups further developer their business model.
Ten selected startups were then given the opportunity to showcase their business models and ideas to an audience of industrial partners and investors, with two social enterprises getting awarded the Most Promising Start-Up Award:
- Orcauboat uses autonomous robotics operations to clean floating garbage and its intelligent maintenance and management solutions for urban waterways is both more efficient and reduces costs by 60%.
- Bluewind provides technical solutions for high carbon emission enterprises through self-developed carbon capture technology.
“Entrepreneurial spirit is an essential component in advancing our shared ambition to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and we will continue to support the most creative, intelligent and daring youth of today in this mission, “ said Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Representative in China.
OPPO and the UNDP has so far set up CNY 1 million (approximately USD 157,000) worth of Youth Innovation Grants since beginning their partnership in August 2021. The two have also worked together to support young entrepreneurs and social innovators in contributing solutions to SDGs, including offering CNY 300,000 (around USD 46,000) in OPPO Innovation Grants to eight outstanding entrepreneurial projects as a partner of the 2021 National dialogue China.