His background has led Chiem to hold certain ideas and beliefs dear. For one, as executive chairman and CEO of MindChamps PreSchool (SGX:CNE
) , an early childhood brand he founded 25 years ago, Chiem believes that nurturing the right mindset for children is the most critical component of education. “The learning content is going to be everywhere, but how do you nurture their mindset? That is the difficult part,” he says in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
Challenges
Nurturing mindsets may be difficult, but impressing investors with its track record as a listed company is also no easy task. On the numbers front, MindChamps delivered a mixed set of results. As of Dec 31, 2025, MindChamps has 37 so-called franchisee-owned, franchisee-operated (FOFO) preschool centres in Singapore and 18 in Australia. Revenue for FY2025 ended Dec 31, 2025, was down by 4% y-o-y to $60.4 million, while earnings jumped from just $237,000 a year ago to $2.07 million.
The huge jump in the bottom line was driven by various one-off transactions, including the sale of a business in Victoria, Australia, which recorded a $4.4 million gain, and the divestment of a Singapore preschool in Buangkok, which contributed $2.9 million to the bottom line in the same year.
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Before the company’s listing in 2017, Chiem was a regular media profile, impressing with the popular narrative of selling the sound business of education, a common obsession in Asia. MindChamps, with strategic investments from then-Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), raised some $25 million from its IPO at 83 cents and hit a peak of 92 cents shortly thereafter. SPH’s subsequent stake has been passed on to Cuscaden Peak.
However, its share price has been on a downward trend ever since, as it did not exactly generate strong growth at either the top or bottom line. While down just 3.36% over the past year, its share price dropped by nearly 60% over five years, closing at 11.5 cents on July 7, giving it a market capitalisation of $27.93 million.
While the number reflects part of MindChamps’ challenges, Chiem believes he has identified the right formula to grow the franchise. “Leadership is critical. It is easy to recruit teachers and principals, but to get them to be aligned with the culture at MindChamps, that is something we need to work on, especially when we are dealing with our franchising business model,” Chiem adds.
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Chiem points out that every franchisee operates their own centres, runs their business, and invests their own capital. “Therefore, how do you build a culture where they recognise that nurturing these children is larger than any one of us? That will be the key challenge.”
To shape the culture, Chiem says MindChamps has created a special leadership training model for all leaders globally, including franchisees, to complete. “That is the key to help us in our operations, because when people start doing their own stuff, then you’ve got operational issues, no matter what system you have in place. It all boils down to the mindset of the leader,” Chiem adds.
US expansion
Apart from Singapore and Australia, its two markets, MindChamps is ready to explore a new market: the US. On July 10, the company announced an exclusive equal joint venture agreement with a California-based firm, Grandview Financial Holdings, which sells annuities, life insurance, and health insurance.
Through this joint venture, Chiem aims to open 125 centres across northern and southern California within six years.
He is now looking at two sites, one in Hollywood and the other in Silicon Valley. “Both locations will give us the brand position that we want. In fact, we will probably be the only education brand from Singapore and that will allow us to create such an impact in the preschool education sector in California,” he says.
Chiem says that while MindChamps has the software and operations know-how, he needs a strong partner who is good at sales and can help scale the business by recruiting more franchisees to help drive the growth. He calls Minh Duong, the founder and CEO of Grandview Financial, “an incredible salesperson” heading a team of nearly 300 licensed sales personnel.
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According to Chiem, the partners have clear roles and responsibilities. Duong and his team are strong in sales and marketing, while Chiem’s side will take care of operations. California alone is a huge market, but the partners hope to eventually bring the MindChamps brand to other US states and, down the road, to the UK. “So it is a perfect fit for us,” says Chiem.
Royalty and training
Meanwhile, Chiem is unfazed by the nature of high business costs in the US. “Currently, our franchising license in the US is around US$100,000 ($129,000) per unit. Through a small business administration loan backed by the US government, our franchisees will be able to secure this loan and purchase the licensing unit and join us as a franchise.”
Regarding the royalty rate, Chiem says franchisees currently pay MindChamps a 9% royalty fee based on revenue generated by the centres. “We don’t need much capital to scale these centres as our franchisees own the hardware while we own the software and supply it to them. The cost of running 10 centres versus 50 centres will have a much different economy of scale. Therefore, the margins on our royalty fee will vary significantly.
As for the breakeven period, Chiem notes that franchisees typically take about 12 months to break even. “In the first year, they got to ramp up the centre, renovate and pay for everything while taking in students as well and hence the estimated 12-month period for them to break even.”
With this US expansion plan, maintaining the standards of its teaching personnel will be crucial for MindChamps, but Chiem apparently has it all planned out. “Some of our key team members will be flying over to the US to train the teachers. Over there, our key team members will also learn from the educators based there. This will be a great cross-border learning experience for our team.”
Chiem adds that the teachers currently based here in Singapore are excited about the US expansion plan, as they will have the opportunity to travel to the US and, from there, expand their skill set, knowledge and mindset.
Brain research
In addition to aiming for growth, Chiem is focused on another aspect of the education business: research. Similar to Australia, where MindChamps has already established two research centres, He reveals that the company will also open a research centre in the US as part of its overall expansion plan.
Chiem says that educational research also plays an important role in preschool education. “You must have the latest research, especially in human behaviour and neuroscience, which is brain science. For example, no child was born hating a particular subject. Where did that mindset actually come from?
Rather than looking only at their behaviour, we need to go deeper by understanding how mindsets form. Because whatever they learn will ultimately affect their mindset in the future and mindset helps to shape a person.”
On the business front, given his arts background, Chiem believes he needs to learn to create a business model that can scale globally. Apart from the franchise model that MindChamps has already established, having the required software is another way to scale up its current business model.
“Our franchisees do care about their business around the clock; that is a fact, but they don’t have the software that they need, which comprises the research, curriculum, teacher training and more. That’s the software that they need and, in a way, Singapore is the perfect global research place as it is the gateway between the East, West, and the Middle East and also the country’s high standard for education and most transparent as well,” adds Chiem.
Entertainment and education
In the long run, Chiem wants MindChamps to own the number one brand position globally in this space. “Once we get that number one most trusted brand, parents will more than ever believe in us. The most valuable commodity that we can have is trust.”
He firmly believes that once MindChamps claims the number-one brand title, the company will be able to venture into other areas, such as aligning education with high-quality entertainment. “I have been patiently holding back my deep passion for entertainment to be integrated into education. We now have a partnership with Australia’s top-notch children’s entertainment called Emma Memma to create a brand new show, which will be launching this year.”
