A BUSINESS idea to produce and market customised educational videos for young kids helped a group of entrepreneurial students from Singapore Management University (SMU) clinch second place at this year's Asian Students' Ventures Forum.

'SMU Ventures' - made up of students from SMU's entrepreneurship society - also took home USD1500 (S$2,024) worth of prize money for their business plan, A Familiar Face.

Korea took home the first prize of USD2000 (S$2,724).

SMU Ventures' business idea was to produce and market customised educational videos that use face-modification software for educational purposes, especially targeted to young children.

Software was used to turn 2-dimensional pictures of parents into 3-dimensional 'teachers' which can be incorporated into educational videos for children, enabling the child to see familiar faces teaching them even when their parents are away at work.

This product concept was developed based on proven psychology that seeing familiar faces helps in the positive mental development of children in the long run.

The three-day Asian Students' Ventures Forum, held last month at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is a regional business plan competition organised by the Korean Economic Daily.

Over 130 participants from China, Japan, Korea and Singapore were involved in the competition.

SMU Ventures was the only Singaporean varsity group invited to participate in the Forum.

This year's win also proved a winning streak for SMU, which came in first and second at last year's Forum as well.