Lotus-NUS Fund for start-ups powered by a social mission
The Lotus-NUS Fund provides seed funding for social impact-driven start-ups that are founded by Singaporeans, to accelerate their growth beyond ideation or technology prototyping stage to a stage where they can attract further funding to build a sustainable and scalable venture.
The Lotus-NUS Fund is now accepting applications!
Support
- The Lotus-NUS Fund provides seed funding grants of SGD $25,000.
- Disbursement of funds would be in 2 tranches, tied to achievement of pre-determined, mutually-agreed outcomes/developmental milestones. An upfront disbursement of up to not more than 50% of total approved funding quantum may be awarded. Supporting documentation as evidence of having met milestones must be submitted before the next tranche is disbursed.
- NUS Enterprise will provide mentorship and relevant incubation support for awardees.
Who can apply?
- The key applicant must be Singaporean (individuals or companies may apply; the latter should have at least one Singaporean founder as the key applicant).
- The key applicant must also be NUS affiliated — students, staff or alumni.
- Social enterprise start-ups/projects that have a positive social and/or environmental impact in Singapore or overseas, impact which include but not limited to environment protection, job creation, human capital development, poverty alleviation and improving social conditions of societies.
- The key applicant must hold at least 30% equity of the company (if incorporated) when receiving support from the fund.
Application Process & Grant Approval
- There will be two grant calls per year.
- Applicants are to submit an Executive Summary based on the prescribed template; and shortlisted applicants are to prepare a pitch deck for their presentation to the grant evaluation panel.
Obligations
- Half-yearly, or upon achievement of agreed milestones (whichever earlier) reports outlining the progress of the start-up/project to be submitted to the secretariat of the fund. A final close-out report should be submitted to update on the achievement of the final milestone.
- The applicant may be called to present to the grant panel on the progress of the start-up/project while receiving the grant.
- The applicant agrees to acknowledge support from Lotus-NUS Fund in future publicity about the venture.
Click here to submit application.
Deadline: March 5, 2018
