Why 1337 Ventures Invested RM50,000 Into A Group Of Year 12 Students

Last week, HELP International School organised a Demo day, where Year 12 students were given the opportunity to present innovative ideas to real-world problems. This was carried out in partnership with 1337 ventures, an accelerator programme that has invested in over 50 startups across diverse areas spanning big data, fintech and social enterprises.

This Demo Day was the final act of Project Purpose, a programme spanning a couple of months, developed by HELP to educate its young talents to think innovatively and create an entrepreneurial spirit.

Now, the reason this caught our attention was because 1337 Ventures said they would invest RM50,000 in one of the student groups to pursue their project as an actual business. The team presented their idea of creating a braille dictionary, translating from English to Malay, which is only a part of their larger effort of creating a platform to connect youths to NGOs and social enterprises to participate in their volunteer works.

Joining us on this edition of Enterprise BizBytes are two of the students from the 8-person team that received the investment from 1337 Ventures; Chong Mae Jian and Katrina Ong Kai Qing, from HELP International School, representing their group - ‘Bridge’.

Bikesh Lakhmichand, founder of 1337 Ventures, was also in this conversation. He served as a mentor and coach to these and many more other students, throughout HELP’s Project Purpose.

Photo Credits: 1337 Ventures