One of the largest startup pitch contests in the world, Startup World Cup regional preliminaries are held in over 75 regions worldwide. The winners are invited to compete for the grand prize of US$1 million in San Francisco this October.

Digital Entertainment Asset (DEA), a Singapore-based global Web3 entertainment company and owner of the popular PlayMining GameFi platform, has won the Tokyo Regional Round at "Startup World Cup 2024", one of the world's largest global business pitch contests. Hosted by Pegasus Tech Ventures, the event was held on Friday, July 19, 2024. DEA will represent Japan at the World Finals in San Francisco on October 4, 2024.

Tokyo Preliminary Round Presentation at Startup World Cup 2024

DEA was one of 11 finalists selected from 226 applicants. Co-CEO Yamada presented DEA's participatory social contribution game, "PicTrée - Grid Grab: Capture the Current," as well as a remote-control robotics game.

PicTrée is a free mobile game app developed in partnership with TEPCO Power Grid (TEPCO PG), Japan’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest electric power company, as a crowd-sourcing solution to solve infrastructure maintenance challenges TEPCO was facing. To play the game, teams of players go out into their local neighborhoods to photograph power assets such as power poles and manholes. The teams compete to virtually connect the longest power lines on an in-game map, and players can earn rewards based on their in-game performance.

By sending players out to check on local power assets, PicTrée enables easier initial infrastructure maintenance and improved early detection of abnormalities. DEA’s presentation included footage from a demonstration test conducted in Japan’s Maebashi City from April to June.

DEA is also developing a remote waste sorting game that will act as a potential solution for mitigating global labor imbalances. Players will sort waste by tapping on images on their smartphones or tablets, and the sorted waste is handled by robot arms at a distant factory. This project has been selected for a subsidy program by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), and DEA plans to host an event involving diverse users, similar to an esports event, in November of this year.