Tencent, NUS to boost Singapore startups with cloud

Tencent Holdings is working with the National University of Singapore (NUS), through its entrepreneurial arm NUS Enterprise, to set up a program nurturing and incubating companies in Singapore through the services of Tencent Cloud.

Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Between Tencent and NUS Enterprise, the two partners will start close collaboration for a period of three years.

“We are proud to collaborate with the NUS in nurturing local companies in the country by leveraging Tencent’s expertise in the cloud space and through our cloud products that cover various sectors, from finance, telecoms, e-commerce, travel and hospitality as well as online game and entertainment,” said Flying Wu, general manager of International Business Group at Tencent. “We look forward to more collaborations with different educational institutes and businesses in Singapore in the future.”

NUS deputy president Professor Freddy Boey said NUS-affiliated startups can benefit from Tencent Cloud’s wide range of products and gain exposure as well as awareness through Tencent’s ecosystem.

The MoU will cover three major areas. First, Tencent Cloud services and technology for startups. Within the first year of the MOU period, up to 20 NUS startups will be mutually selected by Tencent and NUS to use Tencent Cloud services.

These NUS startups will receive technical support, solution, online and offline training with respect to Tencent Cloud products, and gain more insight regarding best practices in their respective fields.

Second, marketing support and speaking opportunities. Tencent will support the selected NUS startups with marketing efforts, and selected companies will also be featured as speakers in events organised by Tencent.

And third, access to Tencent’s ecosystem support. The selected NUS startups will also be granted access to Tencent’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, dedicated AI services and other relevant means to create applications and other features.

Tencent will also provide the selected NUS startups with reasonable access to other ecosystem support from Tencent, along with opportunities to obtain direct or other investments, receive leads and build connections with global ecosystem partners.