CIE’s Incubated Enterprise Macau YunChao Future Technology Wins Award in 929 Challenge
November 9, 2024 — Macau YunChao Future Technology, an incubated startup at CIE, has secured third place in the university category at the 4th “929 Challenge” competition. The event attracted over 1,600 participants, demonstrating the vibrant development of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Portuguese-speaking countries.
The “929 Challenge” is a significant bilingual innovation and entrepreneurship competition that has gained widespread recognition across Macau, the Greater Bay Area, and Portuguese-speaking countries. The competition derives its name from the nine Guangdong cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the two Chinese Special Administrative Regions (Macau and Hong Kong), and nine Portuguese-speaking countries, aiming to foster technological innovation and cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. Marco Rizzolio, co-founder and coordinator of the 929 competition, noted, ” The branding and awareness are becoming stronger. We can see this when we tour the Portuguese-speaking countries. And we are seeing more and more high-quality projects joining this competition.”
The final round featured 16 teams, comprising eight startups and eight university teams from China and Portuguese-speaking countries. In the university category, the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) clinched first place with an AI project for agricultural pest and disease identification, while the University of Macau placed third with a startup specializing in underwater robots for industrial and educational applications.
Macau YunChao Future Technology co., LTD. specializes in the research, development, and manufacture of underwater robots, and has in-depth research on the motion control, structural design, and application scenario development of underwater. The company currently has developed several standardized products, including underwater monitoring robots, underwater pier inspection robots, sea cucumber harvesting robots, and special operation underwater robots and so on. The company has also filed 13 patent applications, including 7 invention patents.
The competition offered a total prize pool of MOP 240,000 (USD 30,000), and an additional USD 4,000 in Alibaba services and tools. The event was organized by the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Forum Macau), with support from the Macao SAR Economic and Technology Development Bureau and various universities and institutions in the SAR.