Young Founders Summit is an incubator program for aspiring founders (students ages 15 - 20, from all over Asia) to find your co-founders, access mentors, experts, and capital to build your startup.

It’s a 6-month program that runs from December to June.

The program comprises:

1. Find Your Co-Founders: A 6-day in-person (overnight) bootcamp in Singapore, with workshops, masterclasses, fireside chats with founders, and fun networking activities. You should find your co-founders here!

2. Build Your Startup: 6-months of mentorship for teams that are formed. Teams would meet with your mentors twice a month. There will also be masterclasses and cohort meetings

3. Pitch for Funding: Return with your product/service and pitch at Demo Day for grant and funding

The 6-day in person bootcamp from 8-13 December 2026 will be held at Block 71 in Singapore this year. Think - THE hub of startup and tech community, expansive view, yummy food.

(Note that locations are subject to change annually)

The 6-month mentorship thereafter will be done virtually.

And then you return to Singapore for the Demo Day in June!

This program is designed for high school to university students between the ages of 15-20.

In addition to the age requirement, you must also be proficient in English. Our participants usually hail from Asia. We don’t exclude students from other countries, provided you’re able to work cross-borders.

You don't need previous knowledge about startups or entrepreneurship, nor any coding or technical skills.

What we are looking for are:

1. Curiosity - is there a problem you really want to solve?

2. Drive and Resilience - Are you motivated enough to keep at this?

3. Growth Mindset - The mentors have so much knowledge to share - But are you coachable?

We welcome individuals, but you can also apply to join together with a friend (or friends).

You do not need to have any existing ideas to apply or to join.

This 6-month program includes a 6-day in person residential bootcamp in Singapore.

The fee is S$1,500 for the program, which includes 6 nights accommodation, meals, local transportation, workshops, mentorship, networking, and other activities in Singapore. It also includes accommodation and meals if you return for the Demo Day the following year. You will need to separately arrange for your own flight to Singapore.

Scholarship / Financial Aid:

We do want to support ambitious students regardless of their financial situation. We have a limited number of partial scholarships available. We do not provide full scholarships.

Wavesparks Ventures is looking to fund $10K first cheques to eligible startups. That’s your pre-seed/launch money.

YFS/Wavesparks alumni have been accepted into Y Combinator, others have gotten funded by VC funds in Asia and in the US.

Other alumni have gotten accepted into universities such as Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology, John Hopkins, University of California San Diego, and more.

Our alumni have also received awards from The Princess Diana Award, Rise Global Winner, and Masason Foundation (Softbank founder Masayoshi Son’s foundation).

We’ve also supported our alumni in securing internships with tech companies.

We expect that up to 30% of the participants would be from Singapore, up to 40% shall be participants from Southeast Asia, and another 30% from rest of Asia / World.

The deadline is 10 November, but we highly advise you to apply as soon as possible since we will be reviewing and accepting students on a rolling basis.

Yes! This is a residential bootcamp, where you meet peers and find co-founders, so it’s compulsory to stay on site with the whole cohort during the bootcamp period. You’ll have lots of fun bonding, don’t worry!