![IIE FOSTERS INNOVATION AND NEXT-GEN ENTREPRENEURS IIE FOSTERS INNOVATION AND NEXT-GEN ENTREPRENEURS](/sites/business.smu.edu.sg/files/news/story1.jpg)
Housed over two floors within the sky bridge connecting SMU School of Law and SMU Connexion, The Greenhouse serves as IIE’s nexus of the innovation and entrepreneurship communities and is home to SMU Changemakers. This is where IIE runs enriching mentorship programmes with industry experts, convenes immersive innovation events, and provides access to resources and opportunities through a global partner network.
IIE also offers students overseas exposure through programmes such as the Global Innovation Immersion programme (GII), a three-month internship programme that has placed 184 students in a start-up environment with corporate partners in 13 cities worldwide since 2015.
Demand for GII internships has grown, with an increasing number of students applying for the programme – 712 – between 2018 and 2020. To date, students who have come through GII have founded seven start-ups, including Schaffen Watches, UglyGood and KpopKart.
The latter two firms were also part of the IIE’s incubator programme, the Business Innovations Generator (BIG). The four-month founder-centric, equity-free incubator enables earlystage start-ups and student founders to validate their business plans, seek advice from industry experts and gain access to grant opportunities.
BIG has incubated more than 200 start-ups since 2009. Between 2016 and 2019, BIG start-ups raised more than $75 million (excluding grants) collectively.
Notable LKCSB alumni who have taken their start-ups through BIG include Leon Qiu, co-founder of Daung Capital, which offers microcredit to the working class in Myanmar; Jeremy Lee and Clewyn Phua, founders of UglyGood and SimplyGood, who distributed hand sanitisers to social service agencies at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak; and Nicholas Lim, cofounder of Treedots, a food supplies redistributor that aims to reduce food waste.
IIE also trains future tech-savvy entrepreneurial leaders through hands-on venture capital training via Protégé Ventures, Southeast Asia’s first student-run venture fund, which was established in 2017 and has since gained governmental support as a nationwide programme.
Students accepted into this intensive training programme source and fund campus start-ups in Singapore. Since its inception, the programme has invested in six start-ups, and 70 percent of its trainees have obtained internship and job placements in the VC and start-up ecosystem.