50 — Ahead of the Curve
Innovation — 51
INSTITUTE OF
INNOVATION &
ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
CREATING THE NEXT
GENERATION OF
ENTREPRENEURS
Developing a culture of innovation and estab-
lishing a community of entrepreneurs is the
vision of the Institute of Innovation & Entre-
preneurship (IIE), which was set up in 2009.
IIE provides opportunities for networking
and learning from peers who are just starting
their journey, successful entrepreneurs as well
as mentors. There are entrepreneurship events
(talks, pitch nights, innovation fairs), compe-
titions, support for student entrepreneurship
clubs, support for academic programmes
and project funding for the entrepreneurship
practicum and final year projects.
Over the last seven years, nearly 15,000
students, staff and faculty have participated in
these programmes.
The
Entrepreneurship
Immersion
Programme (EIP) is one of IIE’s flagship
education programmes and allows students
to take a course on entrepreneurship while
undergoing an internship in a startup. The
programme currently sends students to Ghent
in Belgium, Fribourg in Switzerland, and
Copenhagen in Denmark. Internships are also
provided to students in Jakarta and New York.
Nicholas Han, a third-year student who
went to Ghent in 2016, returned to Singapore
and co-founded Schaffen Watches. IIE
provided him with $10,000 from the innova-
tion accelerator fund. He also participated in
the accelerator programme and has launched
his product in the market. He has since raised
additional equity investments.
Entrepreneurially inclined students are also
supported through the Gary Kunis Entrepre-
neurship Scholarship, as well as the Student
Entrepreneur Internship (SEI) Programme.
Starting in Summer 2018, the SEI Programme
allows students to credit supervised time
spent in his/her start-up business towards the
student’s internship requirement.
Moreover, the Entrepreneurship Practicum
course under the Entrepreneurship Major
offered by the Lee Kong Chian School of
Business enables students to validate their
business ideas as a part of a credit course. IIE
supports the programme through an Idea box
fund of $1,000 per team which can be used to
validate their idea in the market. IIE mentors
provide guidance and feedback to students as
a part of the curriculum.
In addition to their curriculum linked
offerings, IIE recently launched Protégé Ventures
in partnership with Kairos ASEAN. It is the first
student venture fund in Southeast Asia, and
the first batch of 18 student venture capitalists
will be trained to source and fund student-led
startups across the region, thus building a
bridge between the venture capital industry and
the university innovation ecosystem.
IIE also runs the Lee Kuan Yew Global
Business Plan Competition as a part of con-
necting and bringing in the best student
entrepreneurial talent from across the globe.
Conducted every two years, the 2017 edition
saw 550 applications from over 300 universities
in 68 countries. They submitted game-chang-
ing Smart Cities ideas in the areas of health,
living and services, and 36 finalist teams were
selected for a 1-week immersion programme in
September 2017. They competed to win over a
million dollars in cash, investment and in-kind
prizes, and were mentored by senior industry
professionals such as Michael Seibel, CEO of
Y Combinator.
IIE’s Business Innovations Generator
(BIG) is an accelerator designed for student
entrepreneurs and provides support through a
structured programme that takes them through
four stages from business model validation,
innovation development, market development
to financial modelling and fund raising over 9
months.
The programme provides founders with
access to an in-house entrepreneur-in-res-
idence, one-on-one mentoring, legal and
accounting clinics, founders workshops. It also
prepares them to pitch to early stage investors
at a Demo Day conducted every six months.
Teams can also apply for an accelerator
fund of $10,000 and are provided support to
raise grant funds from the government.
Over the past seven years, IIE has
supported over 170 teams and helped them
raise over $26 million in funding.
INNOVATION
RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND CENTRES
Over the past
seven years, IIE has
supported over 170
teams and helped
them raise over $26
million in funding.
