The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (LKYGBPC) was launched by Singapore Management University in 2002. Named in honour of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, who can be said to have developed the country’s defining business plan by pitching Singapore onto the global stage, it was one of the first international business plan competitions created to bring together the world’s brightest next-gen innovators to tackle global challenges. 

The competition, which is powered by SMU’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has grown dramatically from just over 200 submissions from 74 tertiary institutions in 2002 into a global platform for the next generation of entrepreneurs, with over 1,500 applications from founders representing 1,200 universities in 91 countries in 2025. Finalists from the last four editions have collectively raised over S$1 billion.  

In 2017, SMU IIE introduced a deep-tech focus, which over the past four editions has evolved to centre on urban solutions and sustainability. The competition brings promising young founders who are either in university, anywhere in the world, or who have graduated in the last five years to Singapore – one of the world’s most livable smart cities - and connects them with investors, corporates, government agencies and ecosystem partners who can help take their technologies further. Winners can pursue investment, explore opportunities to pilot their solutions and access pathways to scale beyond the competition, including SMU IIE’s Urban SustaInnovator accelerator, which was launched in 2025, and SMU IIE’s $10 million USI Fund. In doing so, LKYGBPC helps strengthen Singapore’s role as a test bed for innovation and a launchpad into Asia’s fast-growing economies, giving founders opportunities to turn breakthrough technologies into solutions that can be piloted, scaled and taken to new markets.

And LKYGBPC is not only about the founders on stage. It also gives students across Singapore exposure to the startup ecosystem, with opportunities to help plan and execute the event, lead sessions, engage with founders and take to the main stage as hosts and MCs. Through the Talent Exchange, students can also connect with startups looking for ambitious, dynamic early employees. It is this dual approach that continues the spirit in which LKYGBPC began: backing young talent with bold ideas, while opening the world of entrepreneurship to next-gen innovators who may build, join or lead the ventures of tomorrow. 

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