DBS Group Holdings Ltd

Established in Singapore.

Listed on the Singapore Exchange Mainboard.

DBS pioneered the Social Enterprise Banking Package in 2009 to provide banking services to support the growth of such businesses.

Starting in 2014 with 400 entries, the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia (SVC Asia) went on to become the largest regional platform to identify and celebrate the up and coming social enterprises from the region.

In 2016, we received 1027 entries from 32 countries.

Our Social Enterprise Grant Programme in 2016 saw 12 social enterprises being awarded grants of SGD 1M to grow and develop their initiatives in areas such as healthcare, education and environmental sustainability.

Over 200 social enterprises from across Asia with 35 expert speakers from 13 countries participated at our inaugural social enterprise summit centred on the theme ‘Hard Truths and Honest Conversations’ in 2016.

In 2017, 14 social enterprises from Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Taiwan received grants totalling to SGD1.1M. The grants helped them grow their operations around inclusive employment, environment protection, waste management solutions and food sustainability.

About 99 social enterprises were nurtured through senior management mentoring, skills-based volunteering and capacity building programmes in 2017-2018.

In 2018, a total of S$135,000 in cash prizes was awarded to five winning teams at the 2018 DBS-NUS SVC Asia. 870 entries were submitted from 42 countries - the highest number of participating countries for this competition, evidencing the growing interest in social entrepreneurship across the region.

We awarded SGD 1.25M to 12 social enterprises in 2018 to encourage them to deploy social innovations in areas such as social inclusion, environment protection and waste management solutions, as well as food sustainability.

In 2018, we partnered the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) to organise the Social Enterprise Week - marked with competitions, retail marketplace, conversations and workshops. DBSF Social Enterprise Summit centred on the theme of ‘Social Impact + Profit: Can boundaries be blurred?’ was well received by 300 participating SEs and the Festival for Good - Asia’s largest celebration of social enterprises brought 9000 people to attend.

The DBS Social Enterprise Support Programme was launched in 2018 for social enterprises to have access to mentoring sessions by DBS’ senior SME bankers, banking and finance training courses at the DBS SME Academy, as well as better financing options.