NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, June 15, 2015

DBS Foundation and NUS Enterprise have announced the winners of the 2015 DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia (SVC Asia), adding that they would receive grant monies totalling S$150,000 (US$112,000).

SVC Asia is a business plan challenge that aims to identify and support new social ventures that demonstrate scalability and sustainability around the region, the two organisations said in a statement.

Learn Education (pic above) took first place, while MicroX Labs and iHealth Express came in second and third respectively.

Learn Education received S$100,000 in seed funding, while MicroX Labs and iHealth Express received $30,000 and S$20,000 respectively. [S$1 = US$0.74]

The Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise or ‘raISE’ has also awarded special grants to two additional SVC Asia teams: SDI Academy (S$50,000) and Society Staples (S$25,000).

raiSE will also provide advisory services and relevant resources or link-ups to the teams to help them in their journey as social enterprises.

This year’s SVC Asia received 683 entries from 30 countries, a more than 60% increase over entries received last year.