Explorie began as a ardour undertaking by SMU college students Weng Haishi (Faculty of Social Sciences), Jonathan Chow (Faculty of Computing and Data Techniques) and Slevin Chua (Yong Pung How Faculty of Regulation). It’s a Non-fungible Token (NFT) platform that serves as a advertising and marketing device for Small and Medium Enterprises, with related workings because the viral sport “Pokémon GO”. Companies can problem geo-tagged NFTs to draw shoppers to their retailer, and NFTs could be within the type of vouchers, collectibles, and digital artwork. The thought took place when the group realised that many companies had been struggling by the pandemic.
In July this yr, the group took half in Hack Cardano, a hackathon organised by the launchpad, Cardstarter which goals to incubate revolutionary initiatives constructed on the Cardano blockchain. Groups of all sizes, nationalities and expertise competed for the grand prize of US$100,000 in seed funding, in addition to a chance to be incubated within the Cardstarter accelerator program. Over 50 groups participated within the occasion, with finalists from america, Europe, South East Asia and Africa.
Staff member, Weng Haishi stated, “We determined to participate on this occasion as a result of the group are long run believers of the Cardano blockchain. Its ethos of “making the world work higher for all” resonates with the group.”
The judging course of consisted of three phases, the primary being ideation. The group introduced a pitch deck detailing their enterprise concept, implementation course of, finance and advertising and marketing plans. The highest eleven groups proceeded to the second stage; technical implementation. They submitted a whitepaper detailing the technical structure, minting strategy of NFTs in addition to sensible contract particulars. Six finalist groups had been chosen for the ultimate stage the place they introduced their initiatives to the judges and answered technical questions.
After an intense month of coding, presenting and writing, Explorie emerged the champion of Hack Cardano 2021.
Haishi stated, “We imagine that our win could be attributed to the novelty of the thought, technical data of the group, in addition to sound advertising and marketing and finance plans. All through the method, we had been in a position to apply data gained in SMU to craft our Minimal Viable Product (MVP). One necessary module can be MGMT218: Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation. We learnt key theories such because the “fowl in hand” precept in addition to steps to making a viable marketing strategy. In MKTG 207: Advertising Technique, we learnt the steps to making a synergistic advertising and marketing plan.”
Shifting ahead, the group is conducting market analysis and has rebranded “Explorie” to “Catch”. They’re additionally liaising with Cardstarter to lift an extra US$1.2 million by non-public and public gross sales. The funds raised can be used to refine their MVP, provoke advertising and marketing campaigns in addition to present liquidity throughout Decentralised Alternate (DEX) itemizing. The “Catch” app is scheduled to be launched in Q1 2022.
