On May 9, 2026, six students from Saigon Business School (SBS) achieved outstanding results at the Grand Final of TECH STARTUP CHALLENGER 2026, organized by the Faculty of Information Technology at Ton Duc Thang University.
TECH STARTUP CHALLENGER 2026 is a startup innovation competition focused on Information Technology, aiming to discover creative, real-world solutions across various sectors including education, services, finance, healthcare, social technology, and sports business. The competition brought together student teams developing fully structured startup projects, covering business strategy, financial planning, marketing, market analysis, operational models, and live pitching before an expert judging panel.
During the Final Round, each team was given 10 minutes to present their project and participate in a Q&A session with the judges. Projects were evaluated based on practicality, innovation, market potential, business strategy, implementation feasibility, and presentation skills.
At this year’s competition, Team Guardian, consisting of Uche Mmesoma Makuo, Oloja Muyiwa Moses and Akinbisade Adeyemi Temidire won Third Prize with their innovative personal safety platform designed for users in Southeast Asian urban environments.
The project focuses on enabling users to send emergency alerts with a single action, while simultaneously sharing live location and activating automatic audio recording to trusted contacts. One of Guardian’s standout features is its smartwatch integration, allowing users to trigger alerts directly from their wrist without needing to access their phone. The project was highly praised for addressing a real social issue through a technology-driven and user-centric approach.
Meanwhile, Team RentUp, featuring Catherine Bawk Nu, May Hbone Kyaw and Yin Myat Noe Oo received the Consolation Prize for their AI-powered platform designed to help real estate agents optimize property matching and recommendation processes.
The project tackles fragmented real estate data through an AI Matching system and automated recommendation tools tailored to customer needs. By applying AI to improve work efficiency and enhance user experience, RentUp demonstrated a strong SaaS-oriented market approach and the ability to bridge technology with practical industry demands.
What made both projects particularly impressive was not only the technological aspect, but also the teams’ startup mindset: identifying clear market problems, researching target users, developing scalable business models, and planning future expansion strategies. These capabilities are becoming increasingly important as innovation and digital transformation continue to accelerate across Southeast Asia.
The achievements at TECH STARTUP CHALLENGER 2026 further reflect the proactive learning spirit, interdisciplinary application of knowledge, and innovative thinking fostered among SBS students through a practical and internationally oriented learning environment.
Congratulations to all SBS-ers on this remarkable accomplishment, and we look forward to seeing these ideas continue to grow in their future academic and entrepreneurial journeys.
