Mr Wayne Goh was just 18 and a second-year student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) when he co-founded deal aggregator site AllDealsAsia in 2011.

Such services consolidate deals from various merchants in one place so consumers do not have to visit multiple sites.

The company grew from a small start-up run by just Mr Goh and his sister to a thriving tech outfit that generated about $12 million in revenue last year.

His story features in a commemorative book, Those Who Dared, about NP alumni entrepreneurs launched yesterday.

Mr Goh, now 23, said it was tough to juggle both his studies and the start-up but the thrill of building something new was worth it.

Student entrepreneurship at Ngee Ann Polytechnic got a further boost yesterday, thanks to a new collaboration between the institution and the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).

As part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the two, NP students will soon be able to intern at the 500 start-ups that are part of ACE's community.

A student chapter of ACE will also be set up to facilitate entrepreneurial activities.

NP and ACE will be co-organising hackathons in the second half of this year for students to brainstorm ideas to solve campus issues and improve the campus experience.

NP principal Clarence Ti said the polytechnic will continue working with stakeholders to boost the start-up ecosystem in Singapore.

"We will work with our alumni and the start-up community to grow incubation activities and build connections, create more internship opportunities with start-ups both locally and abroad for our students, and use NP as a test bed for innovative campus solutions and applications," he added.