NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial heart of the National University of Singapore (NUS), today announced its first European outpost in Munich, in partnership with the entrepreneur hub UnternehmerTUM (TUM).
NUS Enterprise has rebranded as NUSX, and the partnership spans three areas: reciprocal outposts, investment, and talent development, with an initial focus on biotech, AI, and semiconductors.
The collaboration will connect the Singapore and Munich innovation ecosystems, giving NUS deep tech ventures more direct access to European partners, investors and market opportunities, while opening Singapore and Asia to Munich-based ventures.
The collaboration builds on NUS Enterprise’s longstanding partnership with TUM through the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme, with NOC Munich established in 2017.
Since then, NOC Munich has connected nearly 120 NUS students and more than 90 TUM students through exchanges between Singapore and Munich, with alums going on to build fast-growing ventures such as Factorem.
Since 2001, NUSX has nurtured 10 unicorns, more than 3,000 start-ups and 5,500 students. TUM is home to 140+ scalable startups (including Celonis, Konux and Isar Aerospace) and 500+ innovation partnerships annually, with more than 17,000 participants per year.
It ranked Europe’s leading startup hub for the third consecutive year and ranks first in Germany in data science and AI, while its School of Life Sciences is home to 10 of the university’s 17 most-cited researchers.
These focus areas align with NUSX’s innovation priorities and Singapore’s RIE2030 strategy, which commits S$37 billion over five years to research, innovation and enterprise, including flagship programmes in semiconductors and health.
Connecting the Singapore and Munich ecosystems
NUSX’s Munich outpost will be based at the Munich Urban Colab, an 11,000-square-metre innovation centre jointly established by UnternehmerTUM and the City of Munich.
Students will gain access to industry partners, technical expertise and opportunities to validate their technologies in Europe and intern with portfolio companies of the Munich-based VC partner, gaining direct exposure to building and growing technology ventures in Europe.
Selected NUS students will also gain access to UnternehmerTUM programmes focused on IP-based venture creation, 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,” said Dr Tan Sian Wee, NUS Senior Vice President (Innovation & Enterprise).
“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.”
The connection will work both ways. UnternehmerTUM via TUM Venture Labs is exploring a presence at the NUS i³ building in Singapore, where NUSX is based, giving Munich-based teams a direct entry point into Singapore’s innovation ecosystem and connections across Asia.
The partnership will also strengthen investment links between the two ecosystems. NUS is in advanced discussions with a Munich-based VC firm closely affiliated with UnternehmerTUM to join the S$150 million NUS VC Programme as its fifth VC partner, expanding the network of global investors supporting NUS-affiliated ventures.
NUS launched its first outpost at Playground Global’s The Studio in Silicon Valley in July 2026 and plans a third outpost in Shanghai in the fourth 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,” said Professor Dr Helmut Schönenberger, CEO, UnternehmerTUM and Vice President, Entrepreneurship, TUM.
"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.”
Discovering commercial opportunities through AI
Today, NUSX and Zima Labs have jointly developed Nova, an AI-powered engine for research commercialisation. An estimated 70 to 80 per cent of university patents worldwide are never licensed.
One challenge is finding the right commercial partner, which can require extensive manual searching with no guarantee of a match. Nova can analyse a granted patent within minutes, assess its licensing potential against live market evidence, rank potential licensees by complementary fit, and draft tailored proposals while flagging the patent’s limitations.
The platform draws on more than 20,000 NUS patents and invention disclosures, 9,000 research projects, and 11,000 inventors. It combines NUS data on patents, research, startups, and talent with external intelligence on companies, investors, industry needs, and market activity.
AI-powered search identifies where NUS technologies align with company needs, surfacing potential commercial partners and opportunities for licensing, co-development, and investment. Each recommendation is backed by underlying evidence, enabling commercialisation managers to do in minutes work that previously took weeks.
A platform for global impact by 2035
These initiatives support NUSX’s goals through 2035 to:
- Create at least one NUS venture generating more than US$100 million in annual revenue or creating 1,000 jobs,
- Generate US$1 billion in financial returns from NUS ventures; and
- Build ventures that collectively improve the lives of one billion people.
The A5X conference will also host the inaugural Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon (SDTH) this week. Organised by NUSX in partnership with the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH) and TUM Venture Labs, the hackathon will bring together 300 participants from around the world to develop dual-use solutions to real-world defence and security challenges.
Stay tuned for deeper dives into these stories in the coming weeks.
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