China tech internship scheme launched for Singapore students

Yesterday saw the official launch of the Singapore Valley Awards - a new internship scheme that will give Singaporean undergrads the opportunity to gain work experience in some of China's top tech companies.

The Awards are being facilitated by local investment firm Tembusu Partners, with US$2.5 million funding coming from Chinese tech billionaires including 2345.com founder Pang Shengdong, Shanghai Kingnet Technology founder and CEO Wang Yue, and Alibaba co-founders James Sheng and Eddie Wu.

Singaporean entrepreneur Calvin Cheng, chairman of Retech Technology, also provided funding for the Awards.

"We hope that by sponsoring Singapore students for internships at Alibaba, Tencent, and the top VCs like Matrix Partners, Singapore students can get inspired and come back to Singapore and create their own successful start-ups," Cheng wrote in a Facebook post.

"We also believe that we should look more to China for tech innovation - some of the biggest and best tech companies are now Chinese."

GGV Capital, Matrix Partners China, and travel booking site Qunar are also supporting the initiative.

Undergraduates who are Singaporean citizens or permanent residents, and are in their third or fourth year of full-time study at one of Singapore's six publicly funded universities, are eligible to apply for the Awards.

Those that are shortlisted then have to pitch business ideas to a judges' panel made up of 10 prominent members of Singapore's and China's tech and investment communities.

In addition to the five investors named above, Qunar founder Zhuang Chenchao, Insignia Ventures Partners CEO and former Sequoia partner Tan Yinglan, Tembusu chairman Andy Lim, Matrix managing partner David Su, and GGV managing partner Jenny Lee will be on the panel.

Up to nine students that manage to impress the judges will win three-month internships in China starting next year.

This article was first published on Tech In Asia.

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