​Join Asia's brightest student founders and engineers for a full day of learning, connection, and opportunity.

​On June 27, 2026, January Capital and Wavesparks are bringing together student and youth founders, builders and engineers from leading universities, polytechnics, ITEs, and JCs for TheFirst Spark — a full-day symposium designed to ignite your founder journey.

​What You'll Experience

​🎤 Speakers from Asia's biggest names in tech — OpenAI, Shopback, Grab, Workato, AI Singapore and more— sharing frontier perspectives on AI, entrepreneurship, and the future of startups in Asia

​💬 Panel Discussions covering career paths in tech, building AI-first products, and launching your own venture

​🤝 Networking Opportunities with fellow student founders, investors, mentors, and industry leaders

​🍽️ Full Day of Food & Refreshments including lunch and networking breaks

​🎁 Exclusive Swag & Goodies curated for attendees

​🎤 Hear from the biggest names in AI and tech

• ​Thomas Jeng, Head of Startups (APAC), OpenAI

• ​Mark Pereria, Head of Partnerships, Strategy & Growth (AI Products), AI Singapore

• ​Imane Jamal Eddine, GM & Head of Sales, Digital Natives, VC & Startups (Asia), Microsoft

• ​Candice Ong, Board Member & Ex-CCO, ShopBack

• ​Ee Ling See, Ex-Head of Product and Transformation, Grab

• ​June Lee, Head of APAC, Workato

• ​Joshua Wong, Founder & CEO, Hypotenuse AI

• ​Eugene Cheah, Founder, Featherless.ai

• ​Jialu Zhong, Co-Founder, HeyMax

• ​Yang Shun Tay, Co-Founder, Cliya AI & GreatFrontEnd

• ​Ivan Tung, Founder, Pragnition Labs (NCS)

​and more!

​Who Should Attend

• ​Student founders with an idea or early-stage startup

• ​Student engineers and builders interested in founding

• ​Recent graduates exploring the startup ecosystem

• ​Anyone curious about building products and launching ventures in Asia

​🤖 TheFirst Spark Challenge (Optional)

​Interested in an extra challenge? Join our optional 7-day build campaign running before the symposium!

​Ship your idea in 7 days publicly and compete for one of the top 10 spots to demo on the main stage — with over $50,000 in prizes and credits up for grabs.

​OpenAI Prize Pool

• ​🥇 1st Place: $25,000 in OpenAI credits

• ​🥈 2nd Place: $15,000 in OpenAI credits

• ​🥉 3rd Place: $10,000 in OpenAI credits

​ElevenLabs Prizes

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• ​Overall Winning Team: 3 months of ElevenLabs Pro per team member ($297 value/member)

• ​Best Project Built with ElevenLabs: 6 months of ElevenLabs Scale per team member ($1,980 value/member)

​Free Credits for All Build Sprint Participants

​Just for signing up and shipping, every participant receives:

• ​OpenAI — $250 in API credits + ChatGPT Pro for 3 months

• ​ElevenLabs — 1 month free of the Creator tier (worth $22/month)

​​About the Organisers

​January Capital

​January Capital invests in technology businesses powering Asia-Pacific growth. We've backed founders at Shopback, Akulaku, and CoLearn — and we believe the next generation of APAC's most impactful founders are still in school.

​That's why we created TheFirst Fellows. We're building the next generation of founders, operators, and innovators across APAC by amplifying ambition - connecting students with mentorship, real startup exposure, and the global networks they need to build world-changing ideas.

​Wavesparks

​Wavesparks is Asia’s launchpad for young founders.

​We identify and support ambitious young builders before the world is paying attention. Through our early accelerator programmes, venture-building sprints, hackathons, workshops, founder communities, and early funding pathways, we help ambitious young people turn early ideas into real ventures.