National University of SingaporeNUS Enterprise

16 March 2011, Singapore – The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) and NUS Entrepreneurship Centre have today formed a partnership, known as GCL@NUS. This new initiative aims to promote and incubate innovation-based social businesses in Singapore that have the potential to generate scalable and sustainable social impact. GCL@NUS will leverage upon GCL’s global resources and networks, as well as NUS’ innovations and strong incubation ecosystem. This is the first time that The Grameen Creative Lab has partnered with a Singapore-based organisation.

Over the next two years, the key activities of GCL@NUS will include the following:

• Social Business Week – An annual week-long event, comprising of public lectures, a bootcamp and educational workshops, to inspire, mentor and engage with social entrepreneurs, innovators and corporate partners. The first Social Business Week runs from 14-18 March 2011. See Annex 1 for details of this week.
• SocialBusiness@Singapore – This is an annual social business competition that will be incorporated into the Start-Up@Singapore business plan competition. This will be organised every year by students from the NUS Entrepreneurship Society.
• Incubation of social business – An estimated 6-10 ventures will receive incubation support, including seed funding, mentoring and linkages with partners and/or social business funds.
• Organisation of TEDxKRP (Kent Ridge Park) events – These talks aim to celebrate social change through local innovation and global entrepreneurship, and will showcase speakers from around the world who have initiated social innovations that have the potential to make significant social impacts in the developing world. The first TEDxKR event was held on 1 March at the NUS University Hall. Two to three such events will be held every year.Hosting of experienced Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP)¹ entrepreneurs-in-residence
• Development of courses and teaching cases about social business“The idea of social business will play a leading role towards solving many of society’s most pressing social problems. Bringing social business into universities is of utmost importance to further spread the idea through teaching the next generation of young leaders. Moreover, extensive research will enable us to investigate the social impact of a social business, whereas practical activities will contribute to further develop innovative social businesses. We are very delighted to collaborate with such a prestigious university like the National University of Singapore to create an important hub for social business in South-East Asia,” said Mr Hans Reitz, Founder and Creative Director, Grameen Creative Lab

“Through the GCL@NUS initiative, we aim to establish ourselves as the leading incubator of innovative social businesses in Singapore and Asia, play a key role in the development of Singapore as a regional hub for BOP projects, as well as help anchor regional social business funds here. I believe that GCL@NUS will serve to catalyse greater engagement in social innovations by NUS students and the larger NUS community, just as our existing NUS Enterprise Incubator (NEI) has helped catalyse the formation and growth of many for-profit start-ups by NUS students and professors,” said Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

Prof Wong and Mr Reitz signed an agreement to form the GCL@NUS initiative today. This was done at the start of a public lecture by Mr Reitz, entitled “Social business - counterculture in the economic world”, which was attended by some 200 participants.

Social businesses in Singapore

Singapore in general and NUS in particular are already witnessing a growing interest in social business, with a number of new ventures emerging in recent years. These include:

GIVE.sg – This company was launched in 2009 by a group of four fresh graduates from NUS. They aimed to create an online space, which would allow anyone to be a social evangelist and raise funds for projects. GIVE.sg has received funding from the YES! Startups scheme, and to date has succeeded in raising some $600,000 for its partner charities. This has gone towards project such as improving elderly care, support for cancer patients and helping children at risk.

Milaap – As a social enterprise, Milaap enables individuals to make microloans that help the rural poor in India gain access to basic services, such as education, healthcare, electricity, clean water and sanitation. Crowdsourcing allows Milaap to increase the number of people supported and reduce the cost of the loan. Upon completion of the loan period, individuals are returned their loan, which they can keep or give to another borrower. Since its launch towards the end of 2010, Milaap has facilitated microloans totalling $35,000, which has impacted more than 1,200 people in India.

Farmer’s Tale – Developed by a group of NUS undergraduate students and Dr Zhao Shengdong, from the NUS Department of Computer Science, Farmer’s Tale is a Facebook game that promotes volunteerism. Modelled after the popular Farmville, this game allows people to obtain virtual rewards by attending real world volunteer activities, such as cleaning the home of an elderly. Farmer’s Tale is an initiative managed by the NUS HCI Lab (Human Computer Interaction) and SG Cares, an organisation in Singapore that structures episodic volunteer projects. The game is currently under beta testing. In addition to promoting volunteerism in Singapore, Farmer’s Tale can be used as a test bed to conduct R&D on effective methods for behaviour persuasion via online social games.

¹ Bottom of the pyramid refers to the largest, but poorest socio-economic group, who live on less than US$2.50 per day. Social businesses target this demographic group.

Media enquiries may be directed to:

Chan Yiu Lin (Ms)
Greener Grass Communications (For NUS Enterprise)
Mobile: (65) 9-765 5897
Email: yiulin@greenergrass.com.sg

About NUS Enterprise
NUS Enterprise was established 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.

The NUS Entrepreneurship Centre is a division of NUS Enterprise. www.nus.edu.sg/enterprise

About Grameen Creative Lab
The Grameen Creative Lab a joint venture between Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Yunus and serial entrepreneur Hans Reitz. The Grameen Creative Lab is a young team of top management consultants and corporate communications specialists dedicated to solving social problems by using business methods. http://www.grameencreativelab.com/