Welcome to Asia Tomorrow's 11th newsletter. 🍂🌰🍁🌾 🎑

In today’s letter, we will first spotlight "the story and know-how of IEE, the Singaporean entrepreneurship education institute located in SMU” and their insights on the venture ecosystem in Singapore.

👀 Snippets of the letter

• How IIE at SMU is innovating Singapore with various entrepreneurship program

• Who is leading Thailand’s food-tech innovation? : Talks with SPACE-F

• Wise Steps: building circular destinations in Indonesia for sustainable tourism

• How LAFS Is Redefining Team Dynamics and Marketing with South Korean Founders in Vietnam?

IIE at SMU: The Epicentre of Entrepreneurship Education in Singapore's Thriving Startup Ecosystem‍

Every element you can think of in an entrepreneurship education program, Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at Singapore Management University(SMU) has most of them.

From a co-working space, to an incubation program, internship program, student clubs, to a global startup competition, IIE is a one-stop destination for entrepreneurship education. 

Asia Tomorrow met with Prof. Lim Sun Sun, SMU’s Vice President (Partnerships and Engagement) and Lee Kong Chian professor of Communication and Technology, to gain a better understanding of the Singapore entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Q. Could you introduce IIE?

IIE is essentially the institute that is home to entrepreneurship at SMU and was founded 15 years ago. Physically, we are located in the 'Greenhouse' on SMU campus.

Being a management, social science and technology-focused university, SMU realised that there is a lot it can do to promote entrepreneurship in Singapore. As Singapore is a country where academic achievement of students has been greatly emphasized, it is not traditionally regarded as highly entrepreneurial.

In this regard, IIE champions entrepreneurialism and seeks to create a support structure for students who have a desire to engage in entrepreneurship so that they don't fear it.

We hope students feel that this is a safe place where they can fail, but fail forward, which means that they can learn from failure and then translate that failure into impetus for the next step.

Q. Then, what does IIE do? 

IIE is the central institute orchestrating all the entrepreneurship events at SMU. When I joined, I benefited from the strong foundation that had already been laid by colleagues and to focus on creating ways to better integrate all that was being done.

If you think about a university having a full calendar of events, one school might have a talk about sustainability and computing, while another has a talk about the environment. In this case, how do we make sure that everyone on campus knows what everyone else is doing? 

To address this, we decided to combine some of the events, and co-work and co-brand those events that have an entrepreneurial dimension with IIE.

Q. You also have an incubation program, BIG, which fosters startups that can use the Greenhouse. Could you introduce it to us?

‍BIG is an equity-free four-month incubation program that is open to all entrepreneurs and early-stage startups in Singapore and globally. It runs two cohorts a year (January and August). On average, we incubate about 60-70 startups a year, and selection for the program is highly competitive with a 23-25% acceptance rate per cohort. 

As of January 2024, we have incubated 490 startups which have collectively raised over S$747 million as of May 2024. They are selected via a rigorous process including an internal evaluation and an external intake panel comprising experienced venture capitalists and industry experts. 

As BIG is a high-touch incubation program, startups receive tremendous support in the form of dedicated guidance from our Entrepreneur-in Residence, Incubation Managers, BIG mentors as well as industry-specific advisory support from Office Hours Advisors.

Startups also receive 1-to-1 advisory, guidance, and feedback from advisors (experienced start-up founders) on various topics through our BIG Office Hours and BIG Legal Clinic.

Depending on the stage of the startups, the incubation period will help them with validation of product-market fit, go-to market strategies or development of their minimum viable product (MVP). 

One of our success stories is Alterpacks, which creates a biodegradable and home compostable material to replace plastic food containers. It was founded by SMU alumna Ms. Karen Cheah in 2019 while completing her master’s of science in innovation at SMU.

Since Alterpacks commercialised its invention at the end of 2022, it has upcycled about 4,000kg of food waste and fabricates over 500,000 containers a month for distribution in Singapore, Australia and Thailand. In January 2023, Alterpacks closed its first round of $1 million Pre-Seed funding led by Plug and Play APAC, SEEDS Capital to further its commercialization drive.

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Q. Singapore is one of the most popular startups’ destinations. What attracts them? 

• Singapore has a business-friendly environment with high standards of transparency. We have very strong regulations and governance structures, so people can feel confident coming to Singapore to start new businesses. It helps startups not only with registering their businesses but also with settling in and adapting, from finding apartments to schools. Processes are clear and well set up.

• Singaporeans are interested in innovation. We have a very small population and land area, yet we are able to do a lot. I think our appreciation for innovation and striving to improve business processes are the driving forces for that and startups are drawn to that.

• Lastly, Singapore is home to a thriving financial ecosystem with sources of capital and funding for startups.

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Q. What sectors are SMU and IIE interested in?

Our main focus is on urban solutions and sustainability. 

Singapore has had positive experiences with urban sustainability solutions. For example, our public transportation system is well lubricated by a very strong network of IoT sensors. But there is more we can do in terms of optimising urban mobility, especially when it comes to improving the quality of the environment to promote individual well-being. 

SMU is focused on Asia’s regional growth, too. Asia is home to many of the world's megacities, which are going to face numerous urban challenges such as traffic congestion, population density issues, air quality concerns, and traffic optimization needs. 

Thus, IIE is looking at urban solutions and sustainability quite closely. We can play a useful role in marrying academic expertise with innovation energies and commercial support. 

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Q. What’s IIE’s goals in this entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore?

More Stories of Entrepreneurs in Asia

Who is Leading Thailand's FoodTech Innovation? Inside SPACE-F’s Startup Accelerator

How This Indonesian Startup is Balancing Profit and Social Impact in Sustainable Tourism Sector?

Building Success Through Flexible Work : How LAFS Is Redefining Team Dynamics and Marketing with South Korean Founders in Vietnam?

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underdogs Supports Asia Tomorrow!

underdogs, the company behind Asia Tomorrow, is South Korea’s largest entrepreneurship education company. It has trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs to date!📈

With more than 150 corporate partners in Korea, underdogs has created a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to challenge themselves and grow.

And in 2024, underdogs is expanding the business globally. We’re expecting to foster the pre-entrepreneurs & early founders in the Asian market such as Japan, India etc.