Rick Tan and Jonathan Lim, who founded Innova Technology, met and became friends while studying at SMU. The idea of opening a company came to Rick in early 2011, when he lost his passport while on a trip overseas. This sparked the idea of a device to alert people when they get separated from their valuables. The idea found favour with Red Dot Ventures – a technology incubator approved by the National Research Foundation – which invested $589,000 in Innova in 2012.