Singapore, 30 Aug 2024 – Protégé Ventures (PV), Southeast Asia’s first and Singapore’s only student-led venture capital fund, has invested S$25,000 in pre-Series A round funding in Equatorial Space Systems (ESS), Singapore’s only rocket propulsion and space launch start-up
PV is a nationwide training programme and student venture capital fund, established in 2017 by the Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE), which has deep roots in the Singapore innovation research ecosystem. The programme aims to nurture the next generation of venture capitalists and tech and entrepreneurial leaders, empowering youth to fund the future they believe in.
Investing in sustainability and deep tech start-ups
PV has invested over S$300,000 in 12 student start-ups since 2017. This is its 12th investment into a student-founded start-up and is the first investment drawing from its second fund – PV Fund II. Valued at S$500,000, the sector-agnostic fund was launched in September 2023 and was contributed by Mr David Su, Founding Managing Partner of Matrix Partners China (MPCi). The investment serves as a testament to PV’s vision of “by student, for student” to support frontier technologies that will benefit the community as a whole. (Please refer to the Annex 1 for a full list of PV portfolio companies.)
The investment in ESS, which offers cost-effective and environmentally-friendly space launches, demonstrates PV’s strong commitment to backing sustainability-related and deep tech start-ups, which are forming a growing segment of PV’s portfolio. Sustainability-related and deep tech start-ups currently comprise 20 per cent of those supported by SMU IIE’s Business Innovations Generator, an incubation programme for early-stage founders.
This aligns with the trend demonstrated in the latest edition of SMU IIE’s flagship Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition, one of the largest university-led start-up competitions in Asia with a mission to empower youths through innovation and entrepreneurship to create deep-tech solutions to solve urgent global challenges of the 21st century. In September 2023, the biannual competition saw 35 per cent of 1,000 submissions from global universities championing innovations in sustainability as they vied for prizes worth S$2.5 million.
This move also marks PV’s inaugural space-tech investment, said Ms Yasi Huo, Senior Associate Director of SMU IIE. She said, “This first investment by our student venture capitalists into an eco-friendly space propulsion start-up is a significant milestone. It not only supports a groundbreaking venture that positions Singapore as a key player in the global space industry, but also demonstrates PV’s continuing commitment to be at the forefront of trends and technology while championing innovations in sustainability.”
Said Mr Simon Gwozdz, the CEO of the company, “The PV Team has been in the loop with Equatorial Space since our inception in 2017 and it’s great to feature them as one of our trusted investors. PV had previously served as a launchpad for many successful stories in venture capital, and we look forward to working with the PV team to launch more – this time, literally and figuratively at once.”
PV’s journey to investing in ESS
In the seven years since its inception, PV has trained a total of 320 students as venture capital professionals, evaluated over 1,300 deals, aside from investing over S$300,000 in 12 student start-ups.
The student venture capitalist who was instrumental in the analysis and the evaluation of the ESS deal was PV analyst Ryan Teo, a second-year Accountancy student at SMU. He noted the experience of analysing and evaluating ESS offered a unique blend of practical experience, network building, and skill development.
"From sourcing this deal to presenting it to our Investment Committee, the journey has been both challenging and rewarding,” he recalled. “It was through PV that I had the opportunity to speak with industry experts from deep-tech VCs to satellite operators and attend the Global Space Technology Convention & Exhibition, which significantly broadened my perspective on the entire space tech and deep-tech industry. This experience has inspired me to delve deeper into deep-tech R&D and explore the vibrant deep tech start-up ecosystem in Singapore."
Mr Bob Tan, who graduated with a Bachelor in Business Management from SMU in 2024, is a Managing Partner of PV, and a member of the Investment Committee. He said, “We were very impressed by Simon’s passion for the space and his ability to execute - to put together a team with vast knowledge and experience and achieve their current milestones with the resources they have. We’re excited to be backing Simon and his team on this journey.”
Student-led start-ups who are interested in seeking investments from PV can visit https://protege.vc/get-funding.
Enclosure in PDF:
Annex 1 – List of Protégé Ventures portfolio companies
Annex 2 – About ESS
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