Entrepreneurs will now tap into venture capital firms, technical know-how, skilled workers, and connected innovation communities spanning Singapore, Munich, and beyond.

The National University of Singapore's entrepreneurial division, now operating under the name NUSX following a rebrand, unveiled its inaugural European base in Munich today. The initiative unfolds as a joint venture with UnternehmerTUM, the innovation hub affiliated with the Technical University of Munich.

The partnership framework encompasses three pillars: establishing reciprocal hubs in both cities, fostering investment relationships, and developing entrepreneurial talent. Biotech, artificial intelligence, and semiconductor technology represent the initial focus areas.

By linking the innovation landscapes of Singapore and Munich, the arrangement enables deep technology startups from NUS to forge stronger ties with European backers, advisors, and commercial prospects. Simultaneously, ventures based in Munich gain pathways into Singapore's market and the broader Asian region.

This partnership extends prior collaborative work between NUS Enterprise and TUM through the NUS Overseas Colleges initiative, which established its Munich location in 2017.

The NOC Munich programme has facilitated exchanges involving roughly 120 NUS participants and over 90 TUM participants, with alumni subsequently launching rapidly scaling companies including Factorem.

NUSX's track record since its founding in 2001 encompasses nurturing 10 unicorn-valued companies, incubating more than 3,000 startups, and educating 5,500 student entrepreneurs. TUM hosts 140+ high-growth startups—among them Celonis, Konux, and Isar Aerospace—and facilitates 500+ innovation partnerships yearly, engaging more than 17,000 participants annually.

TUM has retained the title of Europe's foremost startup ecosystem for three consecutive years and leads Germany in data science and AI disciplines. Its School of Life Sciences includes 10 of the university's 17 most-cited researchers.

These concentration areas correspond with NUSX's strategic priorities and Singapore's RIE2030 initiative, which allocates S$37 billion across five years toward research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with dedicated investment in semiconductor and healthcare advancement.

Connecting the Singapore and Munich ecosystems

NUSX's Munich location will operate from the Munich Urban Colab, an 11,000-square-metre facility developed jointly by UnternehmerTUM and Munich's municipal government.

Participating students will access corporate collaborators, specialized knowledge, and chances to test their innovations within Europe. They will also intern at companies within the portfolio of a Munich-headquartered venture fund, gaining hands-on experience in launching and scaling European technology enterprises.

Chosen NUS students will benefit from UnternehmerTUM's specialized programmes in technology-driven startup formation, including Startup Launchpad, Digital Product School, and the UnternehmerTUM Incubator.

This collaboration with UnternehmerTUM builds on our longstanding ties with the Technical University of Munich as NUSX deepens its global venture-building network. Through reciprocal outposts, deeper investment links, and new opportunities for our students and start-ups, we are bringing talent, research and capital closer together. This gives founders greater access to the partners, expertise and markets they need to validate, build and scale deep tech ventures from Singapore.

Dr Tan Sian Wee, NUS Senior Vice President (Innovation & Enterprise)

The arrangement operates bidirectionally. UnternehmerTUM, through its venture-focused division TUM Venture Labs, is examining an operational foothold at Singapore's NUS i³ facility, where NUSX maintains its headquarters. This arrangement would grant Munich-based entrepreneurs direct access to Singapore's innovation landscape and connections throughout Asia.

Investment collaboration between the two regions will deepen through this partnership. NUS is in advanced-stage negotiations with a Munich-based investment firm with ties to UnternehmerTUM to become the fifth partner in the S$150 million NUS VC Programme, broadening the investor network backing NUS-connected ventures.

NUSX launched its initial international location at Playground Global's The Studio in Silicon Valley in July 2026 and intends to establish a second international hub in Shanghai during the final quarter of 2026.

Building venture-capable talent across borders

With this partnership, we open a direct gateway between two of the world's most dynamic innovation ecosystems. Deep tech ventures need more than one home market to grow — they need access to research, capital and industry partners across continents. By connecting Munich and Singapore through reciprocal outposts, we give founders on both sides exactly that: a direct path from an idea to a global venture. This is a natural next step in our long-standing collaboration with NUS, and we look forward to building it together with NUSX.

Professor Dr Helmut Schönenberger, CEO, UnternehmerTUM and Vice President, Entrepreneurship, TUM

Discovering commercial opportunities through AI

NUSX and Zima Labs have jointly created Nova, an artificial intelligence platform designed to unlock commercial potential from academic research. Globally, between 70 and 80 percent of university-held patents remain unlicensed.

A significant obstacle involves identifying suitable commercial partners, a process that traditionally demands extensive manual effort with uncertain outcomes. Nova processes granted patents in minutes, evaluates their commercial viability against current market data, ranks prospective licensees according to strategic alignment, and generates customized partnership proposals while highlighting patent constraints.

The system operates on a foundation of more than 20,000 NUS patents and invention submissions, 9,000 research initiatives, and 11,000 inventor profiles. It synthesizes NUS information on intellectual property, research activities, venture portfolios, and personnel with external data covering corporations, funding sources, sector requirements, and commercial trends.

The AI-driven matching capability locates intersections between NUS research and corporate requirements, revealing potential commercial partners and avenues for technology licensing, joint development, and equity investment. All recommendations include supporting documentation, allowing commercialization specialists to accomplish in minutes tasks that once consumed weeks.

A platform for global impact by 2035

These undertakings advance NUSX's 2035 ambitions:

  • Establish at least one NUS-affiliated venture achieving more than US$100 million in yearly revenue or generating 1,000 positions
  • Realize US$1 billion in monetary gains from NUS ventures
  • Develop ventures that collectively enhance the circumstances of one billion individuals

The A5X conference will also feature the inaugural Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon this week. Coordinated by NUSX alongside the European Defense Tech Hub and TUM Venture Labs, the event will assemble 300 participants internationally to devise practical solutions addressing defense and security concerns with dual-use applications.

Source: Tech.eu