Kenny Low spent six years in youth services, four of them volunteering at a local community services agency and another two years coordinating their tuition services arm before setting up City College. He was motivated by a need for transformation and change in education for O-level private candidates, believing that they should not be limited in their educational options and purpose because of missed opportunities in mainstream schools. At the same time, Low was involved in dance since his school days and experienced how dance can develop confidence. This was what motivated him to set up a social enterprise to promote dance as an outlet of expression while creating jobs for talented dancers.

 City College was founded in 2002 to provide an alternative path for high school education in Singapore. The target group is primarily school dropouts from public schools. The strategy is two-pronged. First, City College seeks to influence other commercial schools to have better service deliveries by exerting market pressure on them. By delivering an innovative and effective curriculum at affordable prices, City College secured about 8% of the market share in a short span of four years. As a result, competitors started to adopt similar practices, which in turn have seen the performance of private schools in Singapore improve by 10%.