Hong-Kong-based Young Founders School (YFS), a technology-focused educational non-profit organization, has announced on Friday a sponsorship from Zilingo, a Singapore headquartered fashion e-commerce, alongside with co-sponsors Credit Suisse, and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund.
With the fresh cash, YFS will improve its entrepreneurial education program for high school students aged 11-18. The firm targets to reach 1 million students globally by 2025.
“We are very excited to have Zilingo on board as a partner. Zilingo’s vision around leveling the playing field for all entrepreneurs in the fashion supply chain is very much aligned with our vision to do the same for entrepreneurial education. Together we can unlock the potential in millions of teenagers across Asia and beyond,” Jeff Hui, chief operating officer at YFS said in the press statement.
Ankiti Bose, co-founder and chief executive officer at Zilingo, believes that is crucial to start developing an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age.
“We strongly believe that entrepreneurial education, which helps students think outside the box, build self-confidence and nurture unconventional talents and skills, will be key to building the workforce of the future,” Bose said.
YFS was founded in Hong Kong in 2016 by Billy Naveed, formerly co-head of hedge fund sales and the equities digitization lead at Credit Suisse. The school says that it aims to change the way entrepreneurial education is taught to secondary school students, and define itself as the world’s first global entrepreneurship program for high school students.
Its curriculum is composed of courses targeting creative thinking, resilience, and teamwork, and students are encouraged to solve some of society’s challenges using the UN Sustainable Goals framework around poverty, education, environment, and health, says the school.
In the past 4 years, YFS has brought its programs to Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Bangladesh, with over 2,000 students. The school has engaged with industry practitioners & mentors such as Zilingo, Google, Lazada, Property Guru, Alibaba Group, Credit Suisse, Grab, and Sequoia Capital, among others.
Singapore-based online fashion marketplace Zilingo was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor. The firm raised in February USD 226 million in Series D investments, in one of the largest funding rounds in Southeast Asia for an e-commerce startup, KrASIA reported.
As a woman-led business, Zilingo, that was founded in 2015, prioritizes women empowerment. The company said that women make up more than half of the company’s employees; with close to 50% of the C-level executives being female.