1.4.2 Local start-up financial assistance
Universitas Islam Sultan Agung (UNISSULA) consistently supports the development of student entrepreneurship and local start-ups through a combination of financial assistance opportunities, business incubation, mentoring, entrepreneurship training, and business development support. These initiatives are designed to help students transform business ideas into viable enterprises while strengthening their capacity to create employment, generate income, and contribute to sustainable local economic development.
UNISSULA implements this support through collaboration among the Lembaga Pengembangan Kemahasiswaan dan Alumni (LPKA), UNISSULA Career Center, academic programmes, and the UNISSULA Business Incubator. This institutional structure enables students to receive assistance from the initial business-idea stage through proposal development, business implementation, mentoring, promotion, and further business development.
Program Pembinaan Mahasiswa Wirausaha (P2MW)
One of the primary mechanisms through which UNISSULA facilitates financial assistance for student-led businesses is the Program Pembinaan Mahasiswa Wirausaha (P2MW), a national entrepreneurship development programme organised by the Indonesian Ministry of Higher Education.
UNISSULA actively prepares students to participate in this competitive funding programme. For example, the Faculty of Industrial Technology, together with LPKA UNISSULA, organised P2MW socialisation and proposal-writing training to help prospective student entrepreneurs understand the programme, select appropriate business categories, and prepare competitive proposals. The programme covers both early-stage businesses and growing businesses and combines funding opportunities with mentoring, training, and business development activities.
Through this mechanism, UNISSULA does not merely inform students about external funding opportunities. The university provides institutional preparation and mentoring that enables student entrepreneurs to compete for financial support and subsequently develop their businesses in a more structured manner.
A concrete example is the Mori Pearl student business developed by an interdisciplinary UNISSULA team. In 2026, the team successfully obtained P2MW entrepreneurship funding for an innovative moringa-based boba beverage. Following the award, the students were guided to strengthen product quality, business management, marketing, customer acquisition, and long-term business sustainability. UNISSULA’s supervising lecturer explicitly emphasised that the P2MW grant should be used not merely as financial assistance, but as a foundation for developing a professionally managed and sustainable enterprise.
UNISSULA Business Incubator
Financial assistance is complemented by the UNISSULA Business Incubator, which functions as a platform for developing entrepreneurial skills and supporting students who wish to start or expand a business.
UNISSULA established its Student Business Incubator as a training and development facility for students interested in entrepreneurship. The incubator is intended to encourage students not only to seek employment after graduation but also to become entrepreneurs capable of creating new employment opportunities and contributing positively to society.
The role of the incubator is also formally incorporated into UNISSULA’s academic entrepreneurship framework. The UNISSULA Academic Guidelines state that the university provides an integrated entrepreneurship learning system involving:
- entrepreneurship training and workshops;
- business surveys and practical activities;
- mentoring and coaching from experienced entrepreneurs;
- preparation and implementation of business projects;
- entrepreneurship exhibitions and product promotion;
- business development support; and
- assistance related to business legalisation.
The guidelines also specify collaboration between the UNISSULA Career Center, study programmes, partner institutions, and the Business Incubator, demonstrating that entrepreneurship support is embedded within an institutional system rather than being limited to occasional events.
Mentoring Before and After Funding
UNISSULA’s entrepreneurship support covers both the pre-funding and post-funding stages.
Before applying for entrepreneurship funding, students receive information, training, proposal-development assistance, and mentoring. This helps them identify viable business ideas, develop appropriate business models, prepare budgets, understand markets, and formulate realistic development targets.
After obtaining funding, mentoring continues to help recipients implement their proposed business plans, improve products and services, strengthen marketing strategies, organise financial and operational management, expand market reach, and improve business sustainability.
This approach is particularly important because start-up financial assistance is more effective when accompanied by continuous mentoring. Funding alone may help a business begin operations, whereas mentoring and incubation increase the likelihood that the enterprise will remain financially sustainable after the initial funding period.
Entrepreneurship Funding as a Pathway to Economic Empowerment
UNISSULA views entrepreneurship as an important pathway for developing economically independent graduates. Its academic entrepreneurship policy explicitly aims to motivate students to make entrepreneurship a career option, develop young entrepreneurs based on science and technology, and strengthen graduate employability.
The university’s approach therefore connects start-up assistance with broader socioeconomic objectives. By supporting students in establishing sustainable businesses, UNISSULA can contribute to:
- generating new sources of income;
- creating employment opportunities;
- reducing dependence on formal salaried employment;
- promoting innovation-based enterprises;
- strengthening local MSMEs and supply chains; and
- improving the economic resilience of students and surrounding communities.
This is particularly relevant to SDG 1: No Poverty, as sustainable entrepreneurship provides individuals with opportunities to generate income and create employment for others.
Example of Financially Supported Start-Up
One recent example of the implementation of this support is:
| Start-Up / Business | Funding Scheme | Development Focus |
| Mori Pearl – Moringa-Based Healthy Boba | P2MW | Product improvement, management, marketing, market expansion, customer development, and business sustainability |
Additional UNISSULA P2MW recipients can be added to this table once the official annual recipient database and approved funding amounts are compiled.
Research and Innovation Commercialisation Support
UNISSULA also strengthens the broader innovation-to-business ecosystem through research, prototype development, and commercialisation programmes.
In 2025, UNISSULA researchers obtained competitive national funding under several schemes, including prototype development and commercial innovation downstreaming. Three prototype projects received a combined approved budget of approximately IDR 188 million, while several commercial innovation downstreaming projects received more than IDR 630 million in approved funding. These programmes demonstrate an institutional environment in which research and innovation can progress toward practical utilisation and commercial application.
Although these research-downstreaming schemes should not automatically be classified as student start-up funding, they strengthen the university’s overall innovation ecosystem and provide pathways through which research outputs may ultimately be translated into marketable products, technology-based enterprises, or partnerships with industry.
Contribution to SDG 1: No Poverty
Through entrepreneurship funding opportunities, business incubation, proposal preparation, mentoring, training, business legalisation, product promotion, and innovation commercialisation, UNISSULA contributes to the creation of a more financially and socially sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem.
These programmes help students and emerging entrepreneurs overcome important barriers commonly faced during the early stages of business development, including limited capital, inadequate business knowledge, weak market access, and limited professional networks.
By facilitating access to entrepreneurship funding and combining it with structured mentoring, UNISSULA encourages beneficiaries to build enterprises capable of generating sustainable income and employment.
This initiative contributes directly to SDG 1: No Poverty by promoting economic self-reliance and creating pathways for sustainable income generation. It also supports SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals through entrepreneurship development, innovation, job creation, and collaboration with government and industry.