Founder of Frambie, an online picture frame store, wins 2nd Young Entrepreneur Awards

Malaysian Beh Weng Wei, founder of Frambie, an online premium picture frame store, has won the 2nd Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA), a competition jointly organized by Canon Singapore and MediaCorp.

The ceremony, held on 24th February, saw him walk away with S$10,000 (US$8,000) worth of Canon business products and S$7,000 in cash prizes, sponsored by Canon, MediaCorp, Spring Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University.

Frambie allows users to upload their images and photos to the site, and pick personalized frames for them. The final product will then be printed, produced, and delivered to the customer.

The YEA is a business competition for budding entrepreneurs aged between 18 to 40. It is organized as part of Canon’s Think Big campaign, which aims to spur innovation among Singapore SMEs and startups and promote the use of the Canon business product line-up, which include printers, scanners, projectors, and multi-function devices.

The runner-ups are Bryan Lee and Darrell Zhang from Singapore-based Intraix, which is developing a low-cost home energy management system to reduce energy bills in offices.

The second runner-up winners are Zhang Weiliang and Joshua Chao, which co-founded Avetics. The startup is developing minature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for non-military purposes like land data management. Both runner-ups have won S$9,000 in Canon business products and S$6,000 in cash prizes.

Avetics was also a winner of the Ideas.Inc Business Challenge 2011, an annual competition organized by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University that selects teams with the most innovative ideas and molds them into commercially viable businesses. It won S$10,000 to develop their prototypes.

Keith Tan, founder of Singapore-based social enterprise Start Now, received a Special Mention. As a result, he has won a Canon PIXMA inkjet printer. Start Now is an online platform that links non-profit organizations and corporations with volunteers. The company had recently come in as second runner-up at Startup Arena, a startup pitching competition.

Judges for this year’s competition includes Andrew Koh, senior director and general manager of Canon Singapore, Foong Ming Lee-Ng, vice-president of Mediacorp, Elim Chew, founder of 77th Street, Dr. Low Lee Yong, CEO of MHC Asia, Michel Birnbaum, partner of iGlobe Partners, Goh Yiping, founder of All Deals Asia, and Kenny Leck, founder of Books Actually.

The event’s guest-of-honor was Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Industry.

Last year’s YEA grand prize winner was Ivy Low, who submitted a proposal for WhiteAngel Caregivers Consultancy, a company that educates caregivers on caring for dependents.

Check out Tech65′s interview with the winners:

 

Comments