No more excuses to start your own business.
Local universities have identified the potential of the hot-blooded millennials and have kickstarted various grants and support systems to assist you in building your own empire, we have dug out some that you can consider on your entrepreneurship journey.
Whether you’re still in University or you have just graduated, there’s an option for you!
National University of Singapore
NUS kicks off entrepreneurs with the basics – education and learning.
It starts off early with getting hands-on exposure by interning at start-ups while studying part time at local colleges. NUS offers the
NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme that allows its undergraduates to work and study at locations such as New York, Stockholm and even Israel for either six months or a year depending on the location!
Other educational programmes include Lean LaunchPad Singapore and Summer Programmes.
Moving on to the next stage, NUS Start-Up Runway offers a comprehensive incubation and accelerator programmes for students and entrepreneurs alike – assisting you with market validation, user testing and helping to achieve optimal product-market fit.
This makes it suitable for young start-ups as well as mature ones that intent to grow globally.
It also offers office spaces, mentorship and talent recruitment – a strong basic operational support so that you can focus your energy on building your business.
Not just that, they will also assist you in helping to administer grants available from angel investors and relevant statutory boards in Singapore which encourages entrepreneurship. The grant can range up to $500,000!
Some of the grants available include:
- NUS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practicum Grant (for current NUS students)
- SPRING ACE (for NUS affiliated start-ups
- Overseas Launchpad Grant
- POC and POV Grant (get advice from our mentors)
- Lotus-NUS Fund (for social enterprises)
- VentureForGood Youth (for budding social entrepreneurs)
Nanyang Technological University
Similar to NUS’s NOC programme, NTU kickstarted their Overseas Entrepreneurship Programme (OEP) in 2016 to 4 countries – London, Silicon Valley, Beijing and Shanghai. The students will be interning in technology-based start-ups to expand their entrepreneurial knowledge.
Source
NTUitive is a programme is for both current students for NTU as well as its alumni or experienced business executive who require infrastructural support.
In a span of 3 years, they have helped create over 100 new innovative companies and had over 600 patent families managed over with 1000 life patents!
It offers committed mentorship, support teams as well as existing alumni networks for you to tap on.
Educational needs are met as well with a comprehensive range of seminars, business accelerator programmes, boot camps and even networking opportunities for you.
Some of the grants available include:
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Multidisciplinary grant schemes (Up to $10,000)
To further develop ideas to determine their viability as a business offering. Open to existing NTU staff, students and alumni.
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NTUITIVE Gap Fund (Up to $250,000)
Funding for beyond Proof-Of-Concept development to NTU researchers to facilitate the commercialisation of technologies developed in NTU. The grant will go towards supporting the developmental cost in building a fully functional prototype.
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University’s Strategic Research Innovation Fund (SRIF) (Up to $500,00)
Set up in August 2015 to support teams or spin-off companies’ work on taking technologies to market, particularly in developing a core management team.
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Ace Start-ups Grant (Up to $50,000)
For first-time entrepreneurs to start a differentiated business idea with a sustainable business model and sizeable market opportunities.
Singapore Management University (SMU)
SMU’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) has 7 core offerings: Acceleration, Promotion, Sandbox, Education, IP Management Office, Research and Incubation. This provides a comprehensive eco-system for both aspiring entrepreneurs and established entrepreneurs alike.
Distinguished speakers are invited to give talks, and the IP Management Office (IPMO) also helps in Intellectual Property (IP) rights and commercialisation of the IPs.
Its business incubator – SMU Business Innovations Generator (SMU BIG) offers physical space as well as business mentors to assist the start-ups.
Some of the grants available include:
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IIE Innovation Accelerator Fund (The grant size is $10,000 and is awarded on a co-funding ration of 7:3).
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Startup SG Founder Grant (Provides up to $30,000 by matching $3 to every $1 raised by the entrepreneur.)
Singapore Institute of Management (SIM)
SIM introduces Platform E, the new kid on the block to join its other University counterparts to spur entrepreneurial spirit. What is unique about Platform E is their focus on mentor-market fit as well, other than the mentorship help that the other programmes offer.
Aside from that, its programmes are divided into IntensE and IncubatE to suit the needs of various entrepreneurs. However, the programmes are costlier than the ones that NUS, NTU and SMU provide.
Some of the grants available include: To be announced at a later date.
Successful entrepreneurs
If you think starting your own company is a dream, think ahead!
Carousell found its roots as early as during the founders’ NOC stint in Silicon Valley, and subsequently gained support from NUS with its various grants. Its very first grant was $7,000 and in 2016, it received a whopping $35 million funding.
Dreams don’t work unless you do, with such a great entrepreneurial support infrastructure – make use of your opportunities and turn your dreams into reality.
