SINGAPORE – Winning teams of Mapletree Investments’ (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) inaugural Mapletree Budding Entrepreneurs Challenge (“MBEC”) will donate 70% of their net profits to charity following a week of retail operations at VivoCity.

From 13 to 19 August, MBEC’s top four winning teams – AdaptAble, Error 404, Goodgood and Reflexion – operated rent-free pop-up stalls at VivoCity, engaged the public and generated sales for a good cause. Their stall operations were backed by S$10,000 in prize money and seed funding from Mapletree to commercialise their ideas. Comprising students from various tertiary institutions, teams brought their products and services, developed around the themes of Education or Healthcare, to market for the first time.

Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman, Mapletree, said, “As Singapore’s largest shopping mall, VivoCity provides a real-world platform and a meaningful stepping stone for aspiring entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to market. Beyond gaining first-hand retail experience and valuable customer insights, participants also had the opportunity to make a positive impact on the community.”

In preparation for stall operations, teams were mentored by Ms Gwen Au, Vice President, Marketing Communications, MPACT Property Management Pte. Ltd. Leveraging Mapletree’s retail expertise and capabilities, the session equipped participants with skills in marketing, customer engagement and retail operations.

As part of the Challenge’s commitment to making an impact, 70% of net profits will be donated to charities which are registered as an Institution of a Public Character. The beneficiaries are aligned with Mapletree’s four Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) pillars of the Arts, Education, Environment and Healthcare.

Team Error 404 emerged as the top-performing group across the four stalls. The team was awarded the “Best Stall Operator” title, along with an additional S$500 cash prize.

Reflecting on their experience, a representative of Team Error 404 said, “We sold out all 30 kits in four days, and our youngest customer was just two years old. Seeing children build and code robots independently was the moment we realised this was more than a student project and that we were creating something with real impact. We learnt more during the week of stall operations than we had in months of development.”

Throughout the Challenge, participants received guidance from a panel of experienced entrepreneur-mentors comprising Ms Serene Cai, Co-founder and Head of Commercial, Speedoc; Ms Ethel Tan, Co-founder of Edith Patisserie; Mr Heng Wui Liang, Group Head, BLOCK71, NUS Enterprise; and Mr Shamir Rahim, Founder of VersaFleet. They also benefited from the mentorship of Mr Chong Ing Kai, Co-founder and CEO of Stick ’Em; Mr Javier Tan, Founder of SUSFeedSG; Mr Mohammed Khambhati, CEO of Neural Drive and COO of Resumify; and Mr Thomas Yang, Founder of SwimHaven, who shared valuable insights from their personal hackathon and youth entrepreneurship experiences.

MBEC is part of Mapletree’s broader CSR commitment under the Education pillar to support youth entrepreneurship and innovation. Through the Challenge, budding entrepreneurs are empowered to address pressing social issues through real-world retail ventures.

From 2018 to 2024, Mapletree supported The Mapletree Challenge organised by Singapore Institute of Technology (“SIT”), where more than 1,600 SIT students from various fields of study have benefited from the annual challenges and mentorship. The Group has also collaborated with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry to organise the Mapletree-SCCCI River Hongbao Hackathon from 2019 to 2025. Since 2023, Mapletree has sponsored student-led entrepreneurship and technology events organised by the National University of Singapore’s Entrepreneurship Society, such as UNICON and Ground Zero.

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