Jerald Low, Former Managing Partner of Protégé Ventures, addressing the audience of VCs at the VC Office Hours from the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition in March 2021 / Image Credits: Protégé Ventures
One weekend in the summer of 2004, Jeremy Levine, a venture capitalist at Bessemer Venture Partners, found himself dodging a highly persistent Harvard undergraduate, Eduardo Severin, pitching ‘The Facebook’.
“Kid, haven’t you heard of Friendster? Move on. It’s over!”
Yet, it was that very same summer, Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and a prolific angel investor, backed Facebook at a valuation of $10 million. By April 2005, Facebook’s valuation had ballooned 10- fold to $100 million and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg had left Harvard.
What happened there?
Facebook is just one example of a game-changing student venture that has seen an explosion in value in a very short period. Other hugely successful student ventures founded during their time at university include Dropbox ($9 billion valuation at IPO) and Snap Inc. ($29 billion valuation at IPO).
Thus, it is no secret that universities are hotbeds for startups. Despite this, prominent venture capital players could very likely miss out on tremendous student-founded opportunities because they are not sufficiently plugged into the university startup ecosystem — and what could have been their best investments could end up on a list like the Bessemer Anti-Portfolio (yes, you will find Facebook there).
Protégé Ventures occupies a niche spot in the venture capital and student startup ecosystem
With Silicon Valley in the United States recognised as the global centre of technological innovation, universities like Stanford, Harvard, and MIT have tapped on the early adopter advantages that the country has in technology and have collaborated with well-known venture capital funds to invest in student ventures because they recognised the intrinsic value of investing in young talent.
One such example is Dorm Room Fund established by First Round Capital in 2012. Led by student VCs from universities like U Penn, Columbia, and Stanford, the fund has backed more than 300 companies and is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the US. Its portfolio companies have also raised more than $1 billion in follow-on capital from industry-leading investors like Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital, and notable investments include FiscalNote, Zodiac Inc., and Shield AI.
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While we see similar student venture funds ballooning across the US and Europe such as Rough Draft Ventures and Campus Capital, there has been significantly less traction in Southeast Asia.
However, things have begun to change.
Established in 2017 by Singapore Management University’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) and Kairos ASEAN, Protégé Ventures is a nationwide venture capital training programme and student venture fund — the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. To date, Protégé Ventures has trained over 180 students and, in July 2021, it received a record 313 applications from students nationwide; a 20% increase from 2020.
With members from across universities in Singapore, Protégé Ventures is rooted deeply in the university startup ecosystem where students have immediate and direct access to changemakers in their campuses, as well as researches produced in the universities. Through intensive hands-on venture capital training and extensive network-building, the student venture capitalists (VCs) at Protégé Ventures not only learn about the ins and outs of venture capital while still at university, but also serve as a crucial bridge between industry venture capitalists and education stakeholders.
Protégé Ventures student VCs source and evaluate student-led startups across Asia, becoming trailblazers in the region. Where a startup shows potential, the student VCs pen investment cheques, ranging from S$25,000 to S$50,000, to fund the venture’s future.
Identifying promising student-led ventures
Amidst the pandemic in June 2020, Protégé Ventures invested in Intellect, a mental health startup on a mission to help individuals and workforces get timely access to mental wellbeing support. Soon after, Intellect went on to raise a seed round with investors including Insignia Ventures Partners and Carousell Co-Founder, Quek Siu Rui. By September 2021, not only did Intellect join the highly coveted Y Combinator (YC) accelerator that launched startups such as Airbnb, Reddit, and Twitch, they also raised a $2.2million pre-Series A fund co-led by Insignia Ventures Partners, XA Network and YC.
At the heart of the Protégé Ventures’ investment decision-making process lies its mission of ‘for students, by students’. Protégé Ventures is committed to empowering the next generation of founders in Singapore and the region by making at least 80% of their investments in promising startups led by students and recent graduates.
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And Intellect is not alone. 85% of Protégé Ventures’ portfolio companies have also seen follow-on funding such as Lumitics that secured $750,000 in an oversubscribed seed funding round and Rooit which raised $500,000 in 2020.
The unique perspective and advantage that Protégé Ventures has in identifying high-potential startups led by students and recent graduates is clear. Being embedded in the university startup ecosystem, student VCs often find themselves amidst all the action: from getting front row seats at exciting campus startup events to passionately discussing the viability of classroom (and dorm room) ideas, and being the first to participate in user tests.
There is thus little doubt that their insider access to the university startup ecosystem provides the venture capital veterans they collaborate with unparalleled access to the university startup ecosystem.
Building a sustainable VC and entrepreneurial talent pipeline
Besides providing industry VCs with access to the promising ventures of tomorrow, Protégé Ventures plays a unique role as a pipeline programme for future venture capital professionals and entrepreneurial leaders. Singapore’s Ministry of Education has provided funding to support the expansion and scaling of the programme.
In March 2021, Protégé Ventures co-organised the inaugural VC Office Hours from the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition — Southeast Asia’s largest congregation of senior venture capitalists providing pro bono advisory. The event provided the Protégé Ventures student VCs with the rare and exclusive opportunity to shadow leading VCs from the region, where they could learn first-hand what VCs look out for when investing in startups.
Protégé Ventures Masterclass with Paul Santos, Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners / Image Credits: Protégé Ventures
Crucial to building a sustainable VC talent pipeline is the development of promising and entrepreneurial youth. VCs can play their part by teaching masterclasses, speaking at sharing sessions and mentoring Protégé Ventures’ aspiring VCs through internships.
Jeremy Loh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Genesis Alternative Ventures attested to the calibre and drive of Protégé Ventures student VCs he met through masterclasses, the VC Office Hours event, and internships at his firm.
“At Genesis, we are always looking for driven, curious individuals who want to get an in-depth experience interning as an investment analyst. The student VCs at Protege Ventures have already been trained to think, analyse, and work as a professional VC and hence it makes a ton of sense to hire them as interns for our venture debt firm,” shared Loh.
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“A Protégé Ventures student VC interned at Genesis and we had a super positive experience with her work attitude, quick thinking on her feet, and never-give-up mindset. We would definitely look to hire our next intern from future Protégé Ventures cohorts,” Loh added.
Student VC Benedict Chong, Managing Partner from Singapore Management University Class of 2021, parlayed his Protégé Ventures training into extended internships with Qualgro Partners.
“Protégé Ventures has been instrumental in my personal growth as a VC by familiarising me with many other facets of the venture capital industry beyond desk analysis. Alongside the tutelage of the amazing Qualgro team, this has emboldened me to stay agile and capture many more possibilities as an entry-level analyst,” he said.
Protégé Ventures student VCs often attend and organise speaker and panel session with regional VCs and founders / Image Credits: Protégé Ventures
Invest in the future with Protégé Ventures
Protégé Ventures is on the lookout for VCs to join its journey to empower young entrepreneurial talent as it grows its programme and enters its fifth year as a fund. As a partner to Protégé Ventures, VCs gain unparalleled access to student founders by leveraging on the student fund’s strong presence in the university startup ecosystem.
VCs can also build a strong talent pipeline of entrepreneurial leaders with Protégé Ventures through the following:
- Speaking at events and masterclasses to impart their wisdom and play an active role in inspiring the aspiring VCs and entrepreneurs
- Offering internship opportunities to students to equip them with the necessary mindset and skills to navigate the unknown and disruptive economies of tomorrow
- Sponsorship in Protégé Ventures to give students an experiential, hands-on learning experience as they deploy real capital into startups
To make your impact on entrepreneurial education, you may reach out to Protégé Ventures at hello@protege.vc.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SMU IIE
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