Collaboration will explore new pathways connecting research, catalytic capital and real-world operating environments to develop ventures and livelihoods across the region.
SINGAPORE, September 2026 — TPC (Tsao Pao Chee) and NO.17 Foundation will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Standard Chartered Foundation during AT ONE Impact Week 2026 | Singapore, to explore new models for creating youth employment through innovative ocean and food-systems ventures across Southeast Asia.
The collaboration brings together Standard Chartered Foundation’s networks, expertise, and catalytic capital with TPC / NO.17 Foundation’s operating assets, place-based platforms, community relationships and experience in developing ventures and moving proven models towards scale.
The parties will explore opportunities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, focusing on ventures that can create quality employment for young people while strengthening the ocean and food systems on which coastal communities and economies depend. The partnership reflects a shared understanding that these challenges are interconnected, and that addressing them requires enterprise, capital and communities to work together.
This declaration reflects the ambition of AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026: to move from ideas to systems, and from individual efforts to the infrastructure and ecosystems that allow change to take root.
The partnership will build a new pipeline of ocean and food-systems ventures across Southeast Asia, connecting promising businesses with the operating capabilities and capital needed to test and scale them. Through the Capital Catalytic Facility, the parties will identify ventures with potential to create quality employment for young people and women, test selected models through TPC / NO.17 Foundation’s platforms, and inform new catalytic and blended-finance solutions.
TPC / NO.17 Foundation brings together the operating capabilities of TPC with the venture, philanthropic and systemic-financing capabilities of NO.17 Foundation. TPC provides businesses and assets across shipping and ports, cold chain and food systems, energy, real estate and hospitality, creating real environments in which ventures can be tested and developed, while NO.17 brings its place-based platforms, including Restore Nature, and its ability to connect catalytic capital, communities and ventures. Together, these capabilities provide a pathway for promising ventures to move from early-stage opportunity and testing towards scale.
Standard Chartered Foundation brings its expertise in economic inclusion, its network of clients and partners, and catalytic capital to the collaboration. Having published research on the future of jobs and livelihoods across ASEAN (available here), the Foundation sees sustainable ocean food systems as a significant opportunity to create inclusive and resilient economic opportunities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Patrick Lee, CEO, Singapore and CEO, ASEAN & South Asia, Standard Chartered and Trustee, Standard Chartered Foundation said, “ASEAN’s ocean economy has the potential to drive sustainable growth and create jobs for millions of people. Through the Standard Chartered Foundation’s US$5 million investment, we’re helping to equip young people across ASEAN with the skills, networks, and opportunities they need to build sustainable livelihoods and support the future growth of the sector. Partnerships such as this are important in enabling us to connect our commitment with emerging opportunities and bring together the broader ecosystem needed to turn ambition into reality. We welcome likeminded organisations to join us in creating lasting impact across the region.”
“This collaboration is about putting ideas into practice. Standard Chartered Foundation’s research and catalytic capital, alongside TPC and NO.17 Foundation’s operating platforms and experience across the region, mean a venture can be tried in a working business rather than modelled on paper. What matters most is that it holds two things together that are usually kept apart: the health of oceans and food systems, and real economic opportunity for young people in the economy,” said Sook Yee Tai, Chair, NO.17 Foundation.
The collaboration will initially focus on venture discovery and development across ocean and food systems, opportunities in the blue economy and coastal communities, and developing evidence and practical models to inform future investment and collaboration.
The parties will coordinate the work from Singapore and intend to begin with scoping and discovery sessions involving the relevant teams. These will map the priorities against the opportunity set identified through the discovery deep-dive, with the aim of developing a prioritised scope of work and, subsequently, definitive agreements where appropriate. This declaration reflects the ambition of AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026: to move from ideas to systems, and from individual efforts to the infrastructure and ecosystems that allow change to take root. The collaboration is intended to create a pathway from research to ventures, quality jobs and institutional finance, while allowing each organisation to retain its own mandate, methodology and governance.
As the work develops, the parties may engage additional businesses, investors, community organisations, governments and other partners whose participation can contribute to the development and scaling of the work.
