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, 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 like-minded 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.
About TPC
TPC (Tsao Pao Chee) is a fourth-generation family business holding company headquartered in Singapore that is committed to empowering the Well-being and Happiness economy. TPC does this by supporting global connectivity and resilience through its supply chain and logistics activities, and well-being-focused activities aimed at fostering individual and collective growth. TPC’s purpose-led well-being business ecosystem comprises IMC Industrial, OCTAVE, and multiple non-profit organisations, including NO.17 Foundation, OCTAVE Institute, and Restore Nature Foundation, operating in unity to add value to life, with corporate offices in the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan. https://tsaopaochee.com/
About NO.17 Foundation
NO.17 Foundation is the nexus of capital, consciousness, and collaboration in the Well-being Era — the philanthropic heart of TPC (Tsao Pao Chee). Rooted in SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, NO.17 unites values-aligned funders, partners, and changemakers to catalyse systemic transformation. Through trust-based giving, regenerative coalitions, and strategic ecosystem building, we activate new forms of capital — financial, social, cultural, spiritual, institutional, ecological, and human — as a force for collective flourishing. https://17foundation.org/
About AT ONE IMPACT WEEK
AT ONE IMPACT WEEK is a global platform hosted by TPC and NO.17 Foundation, convening leaders to build the architecture of a Well-being Economy. Taking place in Singapore, it marks a shift from ideas to systems — where ecosystems are activated, infrastructures are shaped, and partners come together as builders. In 2026, anchored by the question, “What if love becomes infrastructure?”, AT ONE IMPACT WEEK is where the Well-being Economy moves from belief into built reality.
About Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore is part of an international banking group, with a presence in 55 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.
The Bank has a 167-year history in Singapore, having opened its first branch in 1859. In October 1999, it was among the first international banks to receive a Qualifying Full Bank (QFB) licence, an endorsement of the Group’s longstanding commitment to its business in the country.
Singapore is home to the majority of our global business leadership and technology operations, as well as SC Ventures, our innovation hub. In 2013, the Bank transferred its Singapore Retail and SME businesses to a locally incorporated subsidiary, Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited (“SCBSL”). In May 2019, we fully consolidated our business operations in Singapore by transferring our Commercial Banking, Corporate & Institutional Banking and Private Banking businesses to SCBSL. SCBSL is well rated, with strong credit fundamentals: A1/Stable by Moody’s Investors Service, A+/Stable by Standard & Poor’s and A+/Stable by Fitch Ratings. In August 2020, we became the first and only bank
to be awarded “Significantly Rooted Foreign Bank” (SRFB) status by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In December 2020, we were granted enhanced SRFB privileges in recognition of a degree of rootedness significantly exceeding the SRFB baseline criteria.
In September 2022, we launched Trust Bank, our digital bank venture in Singapore, in partnership with FairPrice Group. Trust Bank has become one of the world’s fastest-growing digital banks, expanding to more than 1 million customers—equivalent to around 20 per cent of the Singapore market—in just over two years since its launch. Trust Bank offers a wide range of products and services for retail customers, enabling them to save, spend, budget, borrow, invest and insure. It is one of the top-rated banks in Singapore on the Apple App Store and has received extensive industry recognition, including Best Digital Bank in Singapore from The Asian Banker and Best Mobile Banking App globally from The Digital Banker.
In Singapore, we support both individual and corporate needs to build wealth and drive commerce at every step of their journey. We do this by offering an entire range of financial services across Wealth and Retail Banking as well as our Corporate and Investment Banking teams. The Bank has a network of 11 branches, including 5 Priority Banking Centres, 1 International Banking and Priority Private Centre, and over 30 Standard Chartered ATMs. For more information, please visit www.sc.com/sg.
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