GRIP, Internships Abroad A Global Hub for Innovation

KK Fund - Singapore

In my first few weeks of work, I have attended four conferences, three demo days, and countless hawker centers…in short, my internship experience so far has been filled with opportunities to talk to founders and venture capitalists from around the world about Southeast Asia’s unique startup ecosystem. 

I was thrown straight into such a learning opportunity day one on the job when I attended the Alibaba Cloud Summit, which featured a host of businesses, from big enterprises to startups, that are using their Cloud services. I was amazed by the mass and global attendance at the event, and more so by the excitement and technical knowledge that buzzed through the air.

Although conferences are near the top of the list, my favorite aspect about work has to be the times when I get to interact first hand with various entrepreneurs, whether it is at an after-work party or a demo day sponsored by major tech companies like Google and Facebook.

Before starting my internship, I expected that most of the time I will be doing industry and market research, exploring the various trends and characteristics that are unique to Southeast Asia’s consumer market and regulatory bodies. Thus, it came as more than a pleasant surprise the numerous times when I found myself running the initial evaluation meetings with the founders themselves. The trust and the freedom that I am given at KK Fund has not only sharpened my critical thinking skills but also made me become more open towards going into certain industries that I had not seriously considered before.

The other week, I went to an innovation hub on National University of Singapore’s campus to meet with a cohort of Taiwanese startups that had come to Singapore to take part in a month-long incubator program, and several of them were MedTech-related. From a centralized digital medical records platform to goggles that use machine learning to detect the earliest symptoms of a stroke victim, I realized just how fascinating the health industry is and how ripe it is for disruption. Whereas tech innovations in other industries make services faster, giving way to enhanced customer experience, disruptions in the HealthTech space has the potential to save millions of lives.

My summer at KK Fund has only just begun, but already in these short weeks, I have opened my eyes to countless ideas, business models, and most importantly what is happening at the forefront of all the different industries. I can’t wait for what the following weeks will have to bring.