‘The Application of Spirulina Algae Powder’ project of Nguyen Tat Thanh University’s students becomes the champion of the 2020 National Start-up Contest

‘The Application of Spirulina Algae Powder’ project of Nguyen Tat Thanh University’s students becomes the champion of the 2020 National Start-up Contest

On January 8, 2021, at International Trade Center (VCCI), Hanoi, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry – VCCI cooperated with Vietnam Business Forum Magazine to organize the 2021 Start-up Program – 2021 Start-up Festival. During the program, an award ceremony was held with the participation of outstanding start-up projects in 2020 in which Nguyen Tat Thanh University (NTTU) had an excellent project winning the champion of the 2020 National Start-up Contest.

This year, the 2020 National Start-up Contest attracts the participation of nearly 600 projects from more than 40 universities from 30 provinces in Vietnam. Particularly, NTTU entered into top 6 projects in the final round. With high feasibility and practical application, the project of ‘The application of Spirulina algae powder to produce shrimp’s food and environmental improvement’ conducted by a group of students including Nguyen Ngoc Tran, Tran Thi Nga, Bien Cong Doan, Bui Phuoc Truong under the supervision of MSc. Huynh Van Hieu, the Faculty of Biotechnology excelled to become the champion of the 2020 National Startup Contest.

The application of Spirulina algae powder to produce shrimp’s food and environmental improvement excelled to become the champion of the 2020 National Startup Contest

Apart from the certificate of achievement and the Start-up trophy, the winning team also received a prize of VND 30 million from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as other prizes from the sponsors. In particular, as the winning project, ‘The application of Spirulina algae powder to produce shrimp’s food and environmental improvement’ will be assessed and nominated to participate in the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC). In addition, the group of students from NTTU participated in the start-up presentation and seed funding rounds. Demonstrating their confidence and passion of young researchers in scientific research, NTTU students successfully persuaded many investors participating in the event.

MSc. Huynh Van Hieu – scientific supervisor of the project team shared with us that this project was inspired by the willingness to help farmers reduce difficulties including high rate of loss during the seeding stage, slow growth rate at the first stage affecting later development of farmed shrimp, unsatisfied requirement regarding the colour of farmed shrimp which causes price drop and decreasing total revenue. Through the survey of shrimp farming households conducted in My An Commune, Thanh Phu District, Ben Tre Province, a group of NTTU students decided to implement the project of applying Spirulina powder to produce shrimp’s food and environmental improvement. The project provides a solution to a practical problem with high feasibility, resolving the identified difficulties and creating “a product to lessen the hardship of shrimp farmers”. Until now, the project team has received a number of orders from both shrimp farmers and companies.

Display booth for Spirulina algae powder at Start-up Festival 2021

Before presenting at the 2020 National Start-up Contest, the application of Spirulina algae powder to produce shrimp’s food and environmental improvement participated in the Innovative Start-up Ideas Contest- NTTU STARTUP 2020 and won the first prize. In addition, NTTU and investors also supported the project in incubating and commercializing its products.