Media release – embargoed until 16 November 2009, 4.30pm
Entrepreneurship gaining a foothold
among
Statistics from inaugural
16 November 2009, Singapore – More youths are taking up the call to be entrepreneurs, going by the figures of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES!) for Schools and Startups, as well as the inaugural Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students survey (GUESS). Just a year after the two YES! schemes were launched, 31 schools with over 6,000 students have been supported under YES! Schools and 59 youths have started 38 companies under YES! Startups. In addition, the GUESS survey has revealed that 18% of students from the institutes of higher learning are looking to become entrepreneurs upon graduation.
YES! schemes
YES! Schools aims to expose youths to entrepreneurship and instil enterprising traits in them from young while YES! Startups provides seed capital to help youths start their first innovative business.
Eight schools and 10 startups that have been supported under the schemes will showcase their innovative and enterprising products and services at the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2009, which opens today. See Annex 1 for the list of schools and startups participating in the YES! Showcase.
Two of the YES! Startups –Socialico Pte Ltd and vlogCRUSH Pte Ltd – also launched new products and services at the opening. Socialico’s FAME League is a free-to-play fantasy sports, entertainment and popularity gaming platform. vlogCRUSH’s interactive Online Variety Programme (OVP) platform is a free-to-use interactive website that allows users to video-blog or ‘vlog’ their talents. More details can be found in Annex 2.
“Yes! Startups provided the essential funding support and opened many windows for vlogCRUSH. The support allowed us to develop our product from a proof-of-concept idea into a full-fledged product,” said Mr Ian Lim, Founder, vlogCRUSH Pte Ltd.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports was the Guest-of-Honour at the opening ceremony of GEW at HDB Hub. Some 400 entrepreneurs, students interested in entrepreneurship, business angels and venture capitalists attended the event.
GUESS survey results
That entrepreneurship is gaining a foothold among the young is confirmed by the inaugural Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students (GUESS) survey. Over 2,300 students from the three public universities and five polytechnics took part in the Singapore section of the survey.
The results revealed that 18% of the students in Singapore considered ‘remaining independent’ after graudation. This includes starting a new business, taking on a family business or becoming self-employed. This compares to 69% who considered taking up a salaried job. Another 2% of the students surveyed had already founded a business.
As the international data is not yet ready, it is too early to make any comparisons. The survey is co-ordinated by the Swiss Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. The NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, a division under NUS Enterprise, is co-ordinating the Singapore section of the survey.
The GEW is the world’s largest single event to celebrate and promote innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity among youths globally. NUS Enterprise and the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) are the co-hosts of the GEW in Singapore for the second year. More than 25 partners are organising a variety of activities from 16 - 22 November to inspire a new generation of young entrepreneurs.
To find out more, visit: www.entrepreneurshipweeksg.org (Singapore website) or www.unleashingideas.org (Global website).
For more information on GEW or the GUESS survey, please contact:
Chan Yiu Lin
Consultant
NUS Enterprise
Mobile: (65) 9765 5897
Email: yiulin@starhub.net.sg
For more information on the YES! schemes and YES! Showcase, please contact:
Marion Abraham
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
SPRING Singapore
Direct: (65) 6279 3617
Email: marion_abraham@spring.gov.sg
About Global Entrepreneurship Week
Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality, and to make their mark. From 16-22 November 2009, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than 80 countries. Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young. To learn more, visit www.unleashingideas.org
About NUS Enterprise
NUS Enterprise was established in 2001 as a University-level cluster to provide an enterprise dimension to NUS teaching and research involving the University’s students, staff and alumni. The functions of the Enterprise Cluster complement the academic cluster of the University to nurture talents with an entrepreneurial and global mindset. NUS Enterprise promotes the spirit of innovation and enterprise through Experiential Education, Industry Engagement & Partnerships and Entrepreneurship Support For more information, visit www.nus.edu.sg/enterprise
About Action Community for Entrepreneurship
The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) is a movement that involves both the private and public sectors to create a more entrepreneurial environment in Singapore. ACE seeks to be a change agent in building a more pro-enterprise environment through the facilitation of discussion, debate and recommendations on the regulatory framework; changing culture and mindset; improving access to finance and facilitating networking. For more information, visit www.ace.sg
About SPRING Singapore
SPRING Singapore is the enterprise development agency for growing innovative companies and fostering a competitive SME sector. We work with partners to help enterprises in financing, capabilities and management development, technology and innovation, and access to markets. As the national standards and accreditation body, SPRING also develops and promotes internationally-recognised standards and quality assurance to enhance competitiveness and facilitate trade.
Please visit www.spring.gov.sg for more information and news about SPRING Singapore.
Annex 1
List of YES! Schools Participating in the YES! Showcase
1. Northland Primary School - Educational board games
2. North View Primary School - Youth Olympic Games game card and lock for the blind
3. Broadrick Secondary School - Detachable bag protector and mini dust sweeper
4. Outram Secondary School - Alarm pillow, creative umbrella holder and nail clipper with holder
5. Raffles Institution - A round refrigerator with a Lazy Susan
6. Zhonghua Secondary School - Innovative sauce bottle and Ezlink card holder
7. Victoria Junior College - Designed T-shirt
8. Yishun Junior College - A piezeoelectric device that will generate electricity with pressure, a prototype that guides light from outside to the interior of buildings, and an all-weather energy-harvesting device
List of YES! Startups participating in the YES! Showcase
1. Zimplistic Pte Ltd - specialises in the design of home appliances and is currently developing a chapati making home appliance, called ROTIMATIC.
2. StudioNorm Design Consultants Pte Ltd - provides one-stop design consultancy services for the hospitality and entertainment industries. It also aims to launch a flagship brand "normform" to provide lifestyle products, furniture and sculptures.
3. Elohim by Sabrina Goh Pte Ltd - a men’s and women’s wear designer label inspired by structure, form, symmetrical and asymmetrical silhouette designs.
4. vlogCRUSH Pte Ltd - is riding on video blogging as the next trend after text blogging to launch a web portal that allows users to ‘vlog’ their talents.
5. Eco Travel Services (ETS) Pte Ltd - fuses the travel business with environmental causes. ETS’ differentiation comes from the provision of environmentally-friendly focused customised travel packages.
6. Socialico Pte Ltd - its flagship product, FAME League, is a free-to-play fantasy sports, entertainment and popularity gaming platform. (FameLeague.com)
7. Fr3b Pte Ltd - The first sampling concept store in Singapore, Fr3b offers more than 120 free samples ranging from skincare, cosmetics, lozenges, shampoo, tea, snacks and supplements.
8. Eme-Tech Pte Ltd –developed a multimedia platform, Emeeto, which facilitates online communication for SME users (webconferencing), including collaboration, conference, coordination, knowledge-sharing and entertainment.
9. 2359 Media Pte Ltd - offers location-based services on Smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone. The team has so far developed the SG Malls app, which provides an on-the-go directory for all shopping malls in Singapore.
10. Vianiel Pte Ltd - a fashion label targeted at the style-savvy, modern working female. Its exclusive range of women’s wear is positioned a fashion-forward brand with a differentiated style, featuring a strong contrast between traditional tailoring and art, and strong brand value.
Annex 2
Details of Products and Services Launched by YES! Startups at GEW Opening Ceremony
Socialico Pte Ltd
Socialico, a social application developer, will globally market its flagship product, FAME League, after a year of development and testing. FAME League is a fantasy sports, entertainment and popularity gaming platform. More specifically, it is a free-to-play virtual world for predictions of major sports leagues (e.g. EPL, NBA), entertainment news (e.g. Oscar winners) and popularity of social network users in a stock market. FAME League is accessible as an application in Facebook or at FameLeague.com.
For more information contact:
Keith Ng
Mobile: (65) 90033015
Email: Keith@Socialico.com
vlogCRUSH Pte Ltd
Everyone can video blog (‘vlog’) and express themselves with vlogCRUSH’s interactive Online Variety Programme (OVP) platform. This free-to-use interactive website even allows outstanding vloggers to become celebrities through talent recognition opportunities and seasonal vlogCRUSH Awards Shows. The OVP platform allows users to:
· Vlog their opinions
· Host their own web shows
· Prepare their own how-to tutorials.
· Engage their audience (‘Crushers’)
· Be recognised and get rewarded
vlogCRUSH Pte Ltd is the developer of the proprietary vlogCRUSH branding and licensable vlogging platform that is free for use.
For more information contact:
Ian Lim
Mobile: (redacted)
Email: ian@vlogcrush.com
Annex 3
List of Organisers for Global Entrepreneurship Week
Organisers and co-hosts:
1) NUS Enterprise
2) Action Community for Entrepreneurship
Supported by:
1) SPRING Singapore
Industry partners:
1) Apex-Pal International
2) Association of Malay Entrepreneurs (KESUMA)
3) Association of Small and Medium Enterprise
4) Azione Capital
5) Business Angel Network (S.E.A.) Limited
6) bYSI International
7) GardenAsia
8) Ernst and Young
9) Institute of Technical Education
10) Junior Achievement Singapore
11) MoneyTree Singapore
12) Nanyang Polytechnic
13) Ngee Ann Polytechnic
14) NTUC Club – nEbO
15) NUS Business School Alumni Association
16) NUS Overseas College Alumni
17) Outram Secondary School
18) Project Senso
19) Qian Hu Corporation
20) Republic Polytechnic
21) SGEntrepreneurs
22) Singapore Management University
23) Singapore Polytechnic
24) Silver Co-operative
25) Spirit of Enterprise
26) Start-Up@Singapore
27) Talentpreneur Hub
28) Temasek Polytechnic
29) The University of Adelaide (Singapore)
30) Youth Enterprise Academy