Temasek shows way for local firms to support social entrepreneurship

Singapore

AN online platform based in India connects sports talent in rural areas to professional athletes and coaches worldwide. A mobile app puts patients with depression in Indonesia in contact with psychologists. A Philippine startup makes LED lamps that run on salt water and renewable energy for slum-dwellers.

In each of these cases, a social enterprise wants to make a difference - and Temasek International hopes to help make that happen. The Singapore investment company has a 20-strong team of mentors to tend to eight social enterprise teams under the Singapore International Foundation's Young Social Entrepreneurs (SIF YSE) programme.

Siddarth Pisharody, head of the SIF YSE Business Model Mentorship programme at Temasek, described social enterprises as a "coming business revolution" and the next generation of for-profit businesses in Singapore. He told The Business Times in an interview last month: "Social entrepreneurship is on the rise because over time, people realise that the government cannot solve all social, cultural or environmental problems."

The associate director for Investment (Financial Services) at Temasek added that such issues will only become more prevalent and complex as society evolves, but is confident of the vision and energy of social entrepreneurs in their early-20s.

"Millennials feel the need to have more impact individually, and are not as open to rising to the top of the corporate ladder. More believe they can make money, and do it for a cause."

Mr Pisharody said social enterprises have to be self-providing to be sustainable in the long term. This is a core challenge, given that most founders lack a sound business model, are usually "uncomfortable with numbers", trying to solve problems that are first of their kind, or face a funding crunch.

The mentors from Temasek International are from diverse teams such as investments, innovation, human resources and legal, and are thus able to help these founders design or pivot their business model and offer commercial expertise across a broad spectrum of industries and regional markets, he said.

"Think of Temasek as the voice of reason. You have bright-eyed founders who are passionate, have their strengths, but no one to ask them the difficult questions. Temasek, being broadly an investor, is always asking the difficult questions."

Temasek mentors meet their teams in person for four to six hours a month to review strategies from marketing and recruiting to pricing and distribution.

Some employees of Temasek International have come together to form T-Touch, a staff-driven, ground-up initiative which supports the SIF YSE mentorship programme. T-Touch member Huang Zijuan affirmed that community involvement is "very much part of Temasek's culture".

The associate director for enterprise development said: "The goal is to expose the staff to diverse parts of society... This means involvement and getting their hands dirty."

Besides the eight teams mentored by Temasek International, another eight are being mentored by McKinsey Singapore, where Mr Pisharody was an associate. The 16 teams on the eight-month SIF YSE programme will fight each other to be in the top six, who will snag up to S$20,000 each to launch or scale up their social enterprises.

Reginald Wee, division director for programmes at SIF, said the way forward to a better, more inclusive world lies in multi-sectoral collaboration between governments, the private sector and social entrepreneurs.

He said of the six-year-old YSE's growth to a network of 480 young change-makers from 23 countries: "This can be attributed to growing interest from youth who are keen to be part of the solution in addressing challenges we face today, and to drive longer-term change through social entrepreneurship."

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