SOCIAL IMPACT INCUBATOR TARGETS FEMALE LEADERS
SCHOOL: Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University COUNTRY: Singapore
A new start-up incubator for female-led enterprises in Singapore has been launched by Singapore Management University (SMU), home to the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank. The Women in Entrepreneurship Incubator will be run by SMU’s Lien Centre for Social Innovation and will o er a six-month programme of masterclasses, mentoring and pitching exercises. It is funded by a US$300,000 donation from Standard Chartered Bank given to support female entrepreneurship that has a focus on achieving social impact. Alongside fuelling ideas that can help to solve common concerns, the incubator’s principal aim is to narrow the funding gap between male and female entrepreneurs in southeast Asia. Although women account for 30 per cent of entrepreneurs in the region, they receive only eight per cent of venture capital funding, according to a 2020 International Finance Corporation report. For this reason, seed funding is also available to the top-performing projects in the new incubator. “The Lien Centre for Social Innovation is delighted to be part of the movement aimed at increasing gender
equity in business ownership and entrepreneurship in Singapore,” said executive director of the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation Steve Loh. “With the Women in Entrepreneurship Incubator, we are especially keen to support enterprises that create a sustainable impact, within the overall context of contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).” There are places for 10 early-stage start-ups and up to 20 female entrepreneurs in the incubator’s first cohort, kicking o in October. At the programme’s conclusion in March 2024, the five best-performing start-up teams will be selected to receive up to SGD$80,000 (c US$60,000) in seed funding. All 10 of the participating start-ups will receive post-programme support from the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation. Applications to join the incubator are open until the start of September. To be eligible, start-ups must address at least one of the 17 UN SDGs as well as holding a focus that aligns with at least one of SMU’s three strategic priorities of digital transformation, sustainable living and growth in Asia. TBD
10 | Ambition | JULY/AUGUST 2023
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