NYEA 2017

Youth is Not Wasted on the Young

The inaugural Quest Ventures-EDGE National Youth Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 honours nine outstanding youth entrepreneurs in their teens and early 20s.

As Singapore moves to become an innovation-driven economy, who better to lead the charge into this brave new world than our youths?

For now, the average age of Singapore entrepreneurs may be 39, according to a 2016 global study by HSBC, but this looks set to change as momentum builds for a wave of youth entrepreneurs. Nine of them were recently handpicked to be the inaugural recipients of the Quest Ventures-EDGE National Youth Entrepreneurship Award.

The award celebrates and recognises the achievements of outstanding students and recent graduates who have demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial qualities, and achievement in entrepreneurship, as well as contributed to the entrepreneurship community.

“Today’s fast-moving world is characterised by technological disruptions and globalised competition. It is thus important for our youths to have a keen entrepreneurial mindset in order to thrive in the future economy. Key entrepreneurial qualities such as the ability to adapt to various challenges, the creativity to come up with novel solutions, and the grit to persevere in adversity, are critical life skills for our youths, even if they do not eventually start up their own businesses,” said Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry and Ministry of National Development.

He graced the 17 November award ceremony as guest-of-honour and handed out the awards to the nine winners across two categories — post-secondary (for junior college, ITE and polytechnic students) and university.

In the university category, SMU undergraduate Mandy Chan received top honours for her bold decision to take a gap year after her ‘A’ levels to start BOW Pte Ltd. Despite countless rejections, she managed to create her first prototype, Quiver, a multi-functional and multi-purpose sports bag, in the last month of her gap year. Quiver has since raised more than $60,000 through crowdfunding and has gone into production. A pink version was also created support breast cancer patients.

In the post-secondary category, QaneMate’s Seng Ian Hao from SJI International was honoured for the walking aid invention that he co-developed with his younger sister. They were inspired to create a device that could keep walking sticks upright even when not in use after witnessing an old lady falling over while trying to pick up her cane, and have since embarked on a social enterprise journey.

“The contributions of Mandy, Ian Hao and other winners to community service are good core entrepreneurial values that we wish to drive — that in the pursuit of our own success, we should also help others along the way,” said Edmas Neo, Executive Director of ACE.

Congratulations to all the winners!

The Quest Ventures-EDGE National Youth Entrepreneurship Awards is a ground-up initiative by three parties — the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), its youth wing, EDGE (Empower, Develop and Groom Entrepreneurs), and Quest Ventures. It is supported by the National Youth Council and Young ChangeMakers.

If you’re keen to do your part for youth entrepreneurship, sign up as an EDGE member now! EDGE comprises student representatives from various institutes of higher learning who are keenly involved in the entrepreneurial scene.

ACE is committed to journeying with entrepreneurs. Our solutions and services are designed to support entrepreneurs at every business stage, from getting started and finding funding to growing your team and going global. To learn how ACE can support your entrepreneurship journey, contact us today at info@ace.org.sg.