My first product. Built during my PhD at NTU's School of Biological Sciences, for the 1st Singapore Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Biotechnology YES) — organised by A*STAR, ETPL, and Procter & Gamble.
28 teams. We made the top 5, went to the finals, and won Most Original Award and second place.
the product
Lumina™ (露美™) — snap a selfie, choose your desired skin tone, get a personalised skincare formulation delivered to your door.
The core technology was a siRNA hydrogel in a pen applicator, combined with a machine learning model trained on a private dataset of 15,000 women. The app analysed your face, segmented areas by skin tone and freckle distribution, and recommended a personalised treatment regiment.
- 98% accuracy in face segmentation
- 95% accuracy in formulation recommendation
- Clinical trial across 150 women: desired skin tone achieved in 96.66% of cases after one month
the science
We weren't just pitching a concept — the IP was real. Two U.S. patents granted, two PCT international applications filed. The formulation had already been approved as a functional cosmetic by China's SFDA in August 2016.
We collaborated with Prof Tan Suat Hoon, Senior Consultant Dermatologist and Director of the National Skin Centre, to validate the clinical results.
the team
Five people across NTU and A*STAR, each bringing genuine domain expertise:
- Larry Loo (CEO) — NTU President Scholar, Singapore-Stanford Biodesign 2015 Alumni
- Jackie Tan (CTO) — NTU School of Biological Sciences
- Cally Owh (CMO) — A*STAR IMRE Scholar
- Kenny Low (CSO) — A*STAR IMRE Scholar, inventor of patented hydrogel technology
- Dr Delon Toh (CFO) — NGS Scholar, inventor of patented siRNA technology
Advisory board: Prof Birgit Lane (National Skin Centre), Prof Tan Suat Hoon, and Prof Freddy Boey (Deputy President & Provost of NTU).
market
The target market was China's skin lightening industry — a $3.9B segment of the $23B global market.
what i learned
This was before "personalised skincare" became a VC category. We were PhD students with a science-first approach, pitching to P&G judges who understood the formulation side. The "Most Original Award" felt accurate — nobody else was thinking about phone-based colorimetry for skincare at the time.
It also taught me that a good idea with a credible team gets further than a polished idea with a weak one.