Draft:Protégé Ventures

Protégé Ventures is Southeast Asia's first student-led venture capital fund and training programme.

Established in 2017 by Singapore Management University’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) and Kairos Asean, it aims to give undergraduate and postgraduate students from Singapore-based universities a practical, real-life venture capital experience in sourcing, analysing and investing in technology-enabled Asean start-ups with at least one student founder.

Students from all local universities in Singapore who are interested in the startup and venture capital ecosystem can apply to enroll in the program when the application opens every year. They will go through a 10-week training program, including workshops, events, and mentorship from investors and entrepreneurs to learn venture capital (VC) skillsets.

Protégé Ventures student VCs will source for interesting student ventures, conduct due diligence, analyse deals and pitch investment plans to an investment committee. Selected student ventures will receive capital with cheque sizes ranging from S$25,000 to S$50,000.

Protégé Ventures’ first Fund is backed by Wavemaker Partners and Dr. Jeffrey Chi, Vice Chairman of Vickers Ventures Partners. Ministry of Education, Singapore and National Research Foundation, Singapore, also provided funding to support the scaling and expansion of the programme.

In September 2023, Protégé Ventures launched a new S$500,000 (or US$366,900) fund contributed by David Su, Founding Managing Partner of Matrix Partners China.

Since its inception, Protégé Ventures has trained 251 students by 2023. Protégé Ventures students have evaluated over 1,100 deals and invested S$265,000 [or US$194,500) in 10 student startups. These student startups collectively raised S$35m (or US$26m) in follow-up funding.

Portfolio
Protégé Ventures’ portfolio of student startups includes Nurture.AI, Joni.ai, TalentTribe, Lumitics, Rootit , JiPay, Usertip, Intellect, Hypotenuse AI and Angie’s Tempeh.