Protégé Ventures

Protege Ventures (PV) is Southeast Asia's first — and Singapore's only — student-run venture capital fund, established in 2017 by Singapore Management University's Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and headquartered in central Singapore. PV operates simultaneously as an active early-stage investor deploying real capital into student-founded startups and as a nationwide training programme for aspiring student venture capitalists drawn from polytechnics and universities across Singapore. Selected students commit to a minimum one-year full-immersion experience covering sourcing, due diligence, investment committee memos, and portfolio support, under the guidance of SMU faculty and industry mentors. PV is industry-agnostic and invests at pre-seed to seed stages via convertible notes, with typical ticket sizes of SGD 25,000 to SGD 50,000. Since 2017, PV has deployed over $300,000 across 12 student-founded startups. Notable portfolio companies include Lumitics (IoT food-waste management), Hypotenuse AI (AI content writer), Intellect (Asia's largest mental-health care app), Angie's Tempeh (plant-based protein), ZOLO (AI B2B software for food suppliers, pre-seed 2024), and Equatorial Space Systems (PV's first space-tech investment, August 2024). Portfolio sectors span AI, food technology, mental health, consumer services, and space. Protege Ventures' dual mandate — generating financial returns while training the next generation of Southeast Asian venture investors — creates a distinctive institutional model that no conventional fund replicates. For portfolio founders, PV's student investor base translates to a particularly engaged cohort of early believers who bring fresh analytical energy, a wide university network, and long-term personal commitment to each company's success. The programme's tight connection to SMU and the broader Singaporean university system makes it a natural first port of call for exceptional student and recent-graduate founders in the city-state.