Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition helps support and achieves entrepreneurial dreams of students globally. Students can win up to US$60,000 in cash and funding for their business ideas.
Students all around the world can take part in the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition. All they have to do is first submit a 1000-word business plan summary for a start-up or early stage venture online athttp://www.smu.edu.sg/lky.
In short:
What is it about:
The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition is an opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to pit their business ideas against other students all over the world.
What is it in for them:
Students compete for a total of US$60,000 worth of cash prizes. The winning team will take home US$36,000, the first runner-up, US$12,000 and the third runner-up, US$3,000. The other finalists will get US$500 per team.
How can they submit:
Visit http://www.smu.edu.sg/lky to register and submit your business plans.
News Release:
WILMAR GIVES S$5M TO THE LEE KUAN YEW GLOBAL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition at the Singapore Management University (SMU) is back to support the entrepreneurial dreams of students globally. And it is back with strong endorsement from
the business community. Agri-food giant Wilmar International is giving an endowed S$5 million to this competition, which will enable the global event to be run in perpetuity.
Launched in 2001 as the first global business plan competition for undergraduates around the world, the biennial competition encourages tertiary students to showcase their business ideas in an international arena, network with potential investors and attract seed funding for their projects. Since 2001, the competition has grown from strength to strength with more than 1000 business plan entries from over 75 institutions around the world.
“We are grateful to have an industry partner who shares in SMU’s vision and believes in the development of young talents. Wilmar International’s generous support will allow us to continue offering a platform for budding entrepreneurs. We want to encourage tertiary students around the world to seize this opportunity to develop their business plans, and possibly win for themselves funding not just from the competition, but also from angel investors and venture capitalists,” says Professor Arnoud De Meyer,SMU President.
“As a company built on entrepreneurship, hard work and innovation, Wilmar International can clearly identify with the objectives of this competition and is pleased to support SMU in this event. The company wishes it further success in raising up new entrepreneurs and business ideas,” says a Wilmar International spokesperson. SMU’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) is organising the 2010/2011
competition. “The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan competition has been a marquee event for tertiary students from around the globe. With such strong support from the business community, we will be able to impact even more young entrepreneurs around the world and uncover winning business ideas,” says Professor Desai Narasimhalu, Director of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at SMU.
The teams that have won in the past had winning business plans covering data management, energy, gaming, medical, marketing and manufacturing. Champion of the recent competition, Mark Jensen, won for himself US$36,000 with his business plan to revolutionise the communication tower and utility pole industry. The 23-year-old from the US trumped the rest of the finalists with a manufacturing process that will
produce a stronger, lighter and safer structure which also requires less maintenance. “This competition has opened my eyes to the Asian markets. It’s a very outstanding community here,” he says. “One of the things I’ve learnt here is to constantly improve and that will be very important when I go out to raise real money,” he adds. He aims to deliver his first pole next month.
Another alumnus of the competition is SMU Information Systems graduate Leonard Lin. His team TYLER Projects came in as second runner-up in the 2005/2006 competition with a mobile multiplayer game proposal. Today, TYLER generates more than S$1m in annual revenue as a social network game developer and consultant. One of its creations, Battle Stations, is Singapore’s first Facebook multiplayer game and has 3.5 million registered users. TYLER has launched two more games this year.
In this 6th competition, participants will stand to win up to US$60,000 in cash, prizes and business development opportunities. Apart from the top six teams, there will be an individual Most Promising Young Entrepreneur award. The best performing local team in the finals will also be eligible to tap into a S$100,000 HSBC Investment Grant to give life to their business idea. This year’s competition is also supported by SPRING and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).
