Baby Shark Fund
What is the Baby Shark Fund?
Supporting innovation at every level
At SUTD, we believe innovation happens at the crossroads of novelty and usefulness. The Baby Shark Fund empowers you to push fresh ideas forward, test them in real-world situations, and reimagine old problems with new solutions.
More than just a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs, the Baby Shark Fund supports x-trapreneur — spanning corporate innovation, research innovation and market innovation. It provides the runway and support to give ideas a life beyond concepts, while encouraging you to embrace ambiguity, experiment boldly, and adopt Design • AI approaches.
What ideas do we support?
Big or small, we are seeking creative solutions to the world’s pressing problems. Push the limits of your design thinking and solutioning process by exploring one of these three tracks.
Your solution can be for these tracks (addressing problems within the industry or sector), or from these tracks (leveraging technologies and research from the domain to solve challenges elsewhere).
Sector Innovation
Develop solutions that tackle pressing challenges in industries such as aviation, healthcare, and communications. At the same time, explore how innovations originating from these sectors can be adapted to address needs in other fields.
Address them by rethinking how problems are solved in enterprises. Your solutions may shed new light and introduce novel approaches across sectors such as:
- Aviation
- Cities
- Artificial Intelligence
- Future Communications
- Healthcare
To learn more, visit our challenge themes page.
Research and Deep Tech Innovation
Translate cutting-edge research and emerging technologies into practical applications. Projects may directly address real-world challenges through research breakthroughs or adapt these technologies for broader use in new contexts.
Your project could involve applying research to a product or exploring how to bring patented solutions from the lab to the market.
Impact Innovation
Design with purpose by addressing critical social and environmental issues. Solutions may be created to directly uplift communities and safeguard the environment, or to adapt insights from these domains to generate meaningful change in wider society.
We are seeking solutions that uplift people and make our world a better place for future generations. Are you ready to innovate with a purpose? Be a changemaker.
Other Areas of Innovation
Beyond these three tracks, the Baby Shark Fund also welcomes fresh ideas from other domains at our Open Pitching Sessions. Whether it is in education technology, financial services, digital media, sustainability solutions, or emerging community needs, we want to hear your boldest ideas. Innovation knows no boundaries — if you see a problem worth solving, bring it forward and show us how you can make a difference.
Need a starting point? Check out our challenge theme banks.
Need some inspiration for ideas? Check out our problem statement bank.
What are we looking for?
Not sure if your project would be able to secure the Baby Shark Fund? All teams will be assessed based on the following two evaluation principles:
| Extent of innovation |
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| Level of impact |
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You will pitch your solution to a panel to determine if you can communicate the extent of innovation and impact, as well as your ability to bring the solution to your intended users.
How do we support you?
Successful applicants will receive:
- Seed grant funding – $2000 grant money over three tranches to be completed within 6 months from the start of the award.
- Grant uplift – funding may be increased to $6,000 if the team demonstrates ample traction and validates their solution, for example by securing a Letter of Intent (LOI).
- Fast-tracked access to SUTD’s DIVE programmes and grants.
- Opportunities to scale – connect with corporate and community partners in Singapore and beyond to deploy your innovations.
Over the course of the grant, each team will work on 5 milestones that will designed to shape their project for the next stage.
The Baby Shark Fund has supported over 100 teams, enabling students to bring their ideas to life and create meaningful impact.
How to apply?
Eligibility
- Apply as a team of 2 to 5, with at least 2 members who are current SUTD undergraduate or master’s students during the period that you are pitching in.
- One member is at least 9 months away from graduating from their undergraduate or masters’ program.
- The project should not have previously received funding from the Baby Shark Fund.
Pitch your projects
SUTD VIE programmes pitching platforms:
Refer to schedule on the Entrepreneurship page.
Developed an exciting new concept through one of VIE’s programmes? Selected VIE programmes are now equipped with a pitching platform that allows you to pitch your solution for further development.
VIE programmes with a pitching platform include:
- ARISE: Venture Building
- ARISE: Validate
- StartSomething: Build (Dec each year)
- StartSomething: Launch (Feb each year)
Open pitching platforms:
This platform is ideal for teams with ground-up initiatives and academic projects to showcase your work and seek further support.
Upcoming pitch
Follow the latest update on application period: http://www.linktr.ee/babysharkfund
what's next
Find out more
Frequently asked questions
Who are our assigned mentor(s) and how will we work with them?
Need to speak with someone? Chat with our programme coordinator who will help you get all the answers you need.
Can we have grants that overlap each other?
No, you should only hold onto 1 grant at any one time.
Can I use the same idea for all the grants?
Definitely! However, each successful pitch will have a different set of milestones attached to each award to help push your project development forward.
How many times can my team pitch for the grant?
As many as you like! However, each successful pitch will have a different set of milestones attached to each award to help push your project development forward.
Do all my team members have to be from SUTD?
No, but each team will have to satisfy the criteria of minimum 2 team members who are either current SUTD undergraduate or master students at least 6 months from graduation.
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