Singapore, 7 March 2011 – Aspiring entrepreneurs are gearing up again to compete for a slice of over S$500,000 in the ideas.inc Business Challenge 2011. More than 230 teams from Universities and Polytechnics have registered for this year’s competition. This is an increase of 13% compared to last year’s competition.
Organised by Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Center and supported SPRING Singapore, this is the second year that the competition is held, with ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales), a world leading professional accountancy body joining as the Gold Sponsor this year.
The ideas.inc Business Challenge is open to anyone below the age of 26 and was developed to provide the advantages of availability of institutional support to all enterprising youths in Singapore. It is also unique in that it provides a series of support and guidance to budding entrepreneurs, helping them crystallise their ideas, sharpen their skills and transform their plans into reality.
Fifteen semi-final teams will receive up to S$15,000 each for proto-typing and conducting feasibility studies of their ideas, and the final six Grand Final teams will get up to S$50,000 each to commercialise their ideas under SPRING’s Young Entrepreneurs Scheme for Startups (YES! Startups). Additional awards will also be provided to teams, including up to S$100,000 of cash and support in incubation grant.
Associate ProfessorHooi Den Huan, Director of NTU’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Center said, “The ideas.inc business challenge provides a whole series of support and guidance to help these budding entrepreneurs. We are excited to have ICAEW on board for this year’s business challenge as well as SPRING Singapore’s continuing support. ICAEW members, many of whom are senior business leaders, as well as representatives from SPRING Singapore, will join us as speakers, mentors and judges in this year’s challenge, and we expect that students will have the opportunity to learn from these industry experts.”
“The ideas.inc Business Challenge has proven to be a good platform in nurturing the next generation of young entrepreneurs through providing them with mentoring and learning platforms, and funding support. Through the Competition, the companies started by these youths have gained market traction and investor interest. For this second run of the competition, we look forward to more young and entrepreneurial individuals bringing to the table innovative, sustainable business ideas”, added Ms Chew Mok Lee, Group Director, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, SPRING Singapore.
As a gold sponsor for the ideas.inc Business Challenge, ICAEW believes that this is an excellent platform for the ambitious Singapore youth. Mark Billington FCA, Regional Director, ICAEW South East Asia, said: “ICAEW has always focused on the importance of practical experience alongside studies and exams. The ideas.inc Business Challenge is a great opportunity for students to test their innovative ideas in the real world and get feedback from expert mentors. ICAEW is committed to the development of the next generation of business leaders. We look forward to future collaborations with NTU.”
Last year’s competition saw several success stories of start-ups that were developed. Amongst them was first prize winner, Give.SG, a web portal that provides the platform for anyone to raise awareness or funds for their special cause. Co-Founder of GIVE.sg, Mr Pong Yu Ming, said: “The fact that ideas.inc gives out a prototype grant really makes a difference. Without this support, we couldn’t have achieved what we have today.” Since the end of the competition in July last year, GIVE.sg has served over 40 charities based in Singapore, and reached out to more than 4,000 donors, raising a whopping $500,000 within its first year of business.
“Being a part of ideas.inc Business Challenge was amazing. We were exposed to real life situations where we received invaluable insights and advice from industry experts. It helped us clarify our business strategy and plan, and provided us the seed fund to launch our ideas into the market,” added Ms Sylvia Yao, CEO of Manga Castle, which was the winning team at last year’s competition. Together with the Chief Technical Officer, Mr Wu Di, they hoped to provide users with the most collaborative gaming platform that transforms evolving knowledge about manga fans into games they love. Since the end of last year’s competition, Manga Castle has completed the beta version of and further improved their flagship game, Magic Castle. To date, Magic Castle has 7,000 users and over 16,000 fans on Facebook. The game has also been launched on MatchMoveGames, an online game aggregator.
The competition will consist of four phases starting with the preliminary phase where interested parties are required to submit their executive summaries through the official website. This will be followed by the quarter-final phase where 30 business ideas will be shortlisted. Selected teams are required to pitch their business ideal to a panellist of judges.
The third phase, also known as the Idea Development Phase, will see 15 teams move on to this semi-final phase. The teams are given three months to complete their Proof of Concept. To help prove the feasibility of their ideas, they will receive funding of up to $15,000 per team. The fourth and final phase will have six teams selected from the semi-final round pitch against each other. They will have two months to begin commercialisation and penetration into the market.
The winning team will be chosen in September 2011.