Singapore Management University (SMU) has on Thursday announced the launch of the Urban SustaInnovator (USI) Fund, a $10 million investment program designed to support startups emerging from USI, SMU’s flagship accelerator for urban solutions and sustainability (USS) ventures for expansion in Singapore and across Asia.
The fund will invest in USI’s globally sourced and competition-vetted pipeline of early stage deep-tech startups from the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (LKYGBPC), SMU said in a statement.
USI was launched at the 12th edition of LKYGBPC held in September 2025 at SMU by Minister for National Development, Mr Chee Hong Tat, and was designed to incubate high-potential startups in the USS sector.
The accelerator began incubating its first batch of startups in February 2026.
The USI Fund, believed to be South-east Asia’s first university-anchored co-investment fund dedicated to urban solutions and sustainability, is integrated with the purpose-built accelerator that supports early-stage ventures addressing critical urban challenges – including decarbonization, energy transition, the built environment, mobility, and circularity – as they move from validation to real-world deployment across Asian cities.
“Urban sustainability innovation often fails not for lack of ideas, but for lack of capital that understands early‑stage risk and long deployment cycles,
“The USI Fund addresses this pain point by co‑investing with leading venture capital partners and backing deep-tech startups from SMU’s robust global pipeline, providing targeted early‑stage capital to help founders scale proven solutions into Asian urban markets,” said Professor Sun Sun Lim, SMU’s Vice President (Partnerships & Engagement).
Professor Lim, who is also the Chair of the USI Program Management Committee, said that the fund will co‑invest alongside established venture capital partners under prevailing market terms, providing catalytic capital while benefiting from the commercial rigor and sector expertise of lead investors.
The fund is expected to make its first investments from the inaugural USI accelerator cohort, with deployments expected to commence by the fourth quarter of 2026.
In line with SMU’s emphasis on experiential and practice‑oriented learning, another important benefit of the USI Fund is that it enables SMU students to learn directly from live ventures and real investment decisions through interactions with the founders and mentors on the USI program, said Lim.
She said selected SMU students are embedded across stages of the USI platform – from startup evaluation and market analysis to diligence and portfolio support – allowing them to develop venture literacy, climate and sustainability insight, commercialization know-how and applied decision‑making skills beyond the classroom.”
“By integrating capital deployment with deep experiential learning, the USI Fund reinforces SMU’s mission as a global city university, where education, innovation, and real‑world impact are closely intertwined,” she added.