S'pore start-up among global picks by Kajima for mentorship, funding

Group's programme to help selected firms accelerate commercialisation of concepts

- Krist Boo

A Singapore start-up is one of five global picks by Japanese construction group Kajima Corp for a programme to help accelerate the commercialisation of their concepts.

CityBot Technology, which makes robots to inspect confined or hazardous underground facilities such as drains, sewers and pipes, joins two British companies, one from the US and another from Hong Kong for The Gear Startup CoLab programme.

Chief executive Chen Zhi hopes to take his robotic and artificial intelligence-powered analytics systems global in the next 12 months.

The start-up is also trialling its concepts with PUB after winning the national water agency's annual global innovation challenge in 2023 with its smart drain inspector.

CityBot and the other four companies were picked from 96 applications from 17 countries after the programme was launched in April. About 57 per cent of the applicants are from overseas.

The five companies will receive mentorship, funding and access to Kajima's regional headquarters and research facility at Changi Business Park to test their technologies.