Alipay and NUS Enterprises, the National University of Singapore's business incubator arm, announced an initiative to support digital technology startups throughout Southeast Asia that are working to improve society.

The program is designed to boost educational opportunities for low-income people or help the elderly leverage digital technology or offer skills to the disabled, according to a company press release.

The first Alipay NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge will take place in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. A panel of judges in each country will name three winners, who will receive cash prizes of SGD $10,000. All winners will compete for the top prize, which will be named in March during a competition in Singapore. The top prize there will be SGD $50,000.

Won Poh Kam, a professor and senior director at the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, said the program will provide help for these startups to scale up, using an ecosystem of mentors, impact investors, corporate CSR teams and other support systems.

Top teams will also get financial support and a e-month incubation support by NUS Enterprise as well as access to its Block71 community and co-working space in Singapore, Bandung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Suzhou and San Francisco