Gen Z entrepreneur pauses college after securing $1 million for his startup
Raymond Loong Ng, 21, deferred his university enrollment to join a San Francisco founders program after his company raised a total of $1 million.
Born in Vietnam and raised in Singapore, Raymond Loong Ng built a track record of side businesses and AI projects before teaming up with a former hackathon rival to launch Makeable, a platform that turns user prompts into complete physical product kits. After winning multiple competitions, the duo attracted a $250,000 pre-seed round from Afore Capital and later secured enough additional capital to reach $1 million in total funding.
The investment enabled them to join Afore’s two-month Founders-in-Residence program in San Francisco, prompting both founders to defer or pause their university studies and live in a Tenderloin hacker house. While back in Singapore they are applying for O-1 visas and intend to spend the next few years in the Bay Area to scale the company.
