SINGAPORE will add S$440 million to a scheme aimed at boosting private-sector investments into deep-tech startups based in the city-state, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced on Monday (Oct 28).
The funds will be injected into the Startup SG Equity scheme, which was established in 2017 and is part of Singapore’s S$28 billion Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan.
This comes amid a “slight decline” year on year in the total venture capital raised for startups here year to date – to US$4 billion with close to 370 deals. However, DPM Heng said this was “well expected” given the global decline in venture funding at around 15 per cent.
Nonetheless, the funds will let the government invest alongside global and local investors, in a bid to stimulate greater private-sector investment in such startups.
Deep tech, he noted, is “both difficult and expensive to get right” and a strong ecosystem is needed to aid innovators and startups in this field.
“To better support deep-tech startups through the early stages of their development, we will also expand our funding support to cover early growth-stage companies,” DPM Heng said during his opening address at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (Switch) 2024 held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
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This includes Seed to Series B and C startups, according to a joint statement from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
The cap of total government equity investment into each startup will be raised to S$12 million from S$8 million, DPM Heng said.
The Startup SG Equity scheme will be administered by EnterpriseSG and the EDB, through which the government partners private-sector investors to invest in innovative deep-tech startups that have strong potential to scale globally.
The funds would allow Singapore to attract and partner with “an expanded pool of global prominent venture capital (VC) firms” to invest in such startups, said a joint statement by the two agencies.
At the event, the deputy prim minister also announced several other new initiatives to support startups.
This includes StageOne slated for launch in the first quarter of next year. This is meant to connect local and global startup communities, as well as to help them leverage Singapore as a launchpad to scale overseas.
There will be programmes to help them establish their base in Singapore and build capability for business growth, EnterpriseSG said in a statement.
The government is also rolling out a series of open innovation challenges (OIC), DPM Heng said. In these challenges, companies identify problem statements that are most relevant to their businesses.
This includes the inaugural Artifical Intelligence (AI) OIC in hopes of developing AI-powered solutions for industry.
The challenge has drawn five companies from different industries: infrastructure consulting firm Aecom, hotel Park Royal, aircraft equipment maker Safran, shipyard group Seatrium and carmaker Toyota’s trading arm Toyota Tsusho.
Another new OIC is the Nordic Open Innovation Challenge, which will help Singapore companies partner global companies to expand into new markets while also addressing challenges in areas such as sustainability and advanced manufacturing.
Meanwhile, the Sustainability OIC will return for the sixth time to crowdsource solutions for companies to meet their sustainability goals.
More than S$2.5 million has been committed to the Sustainability OIC, which includes the participation of 14 corporates from various industries.
Separately, EnterpriseSG is also expanding its Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) network to the Netherlands, specifically in Amsterdam and Eindhoven.
This brings the total number of nodes in the GIA network to 23, across 15 areas in Asia, Europe and the United States.
The new nodes would pave the way for Singapore tech startups to access the Dutch market.
DPM Heng said startups in Singapore will benefit from the strong logistics infrastructure and connectivity that the Netherlands provides into Europe, as well as partnerships with Dutch corporates such as Alliander, ASML, Philips and Shell.
In the meantime, the government is now preparing the RIE 2030 to cover 2026 to 2030, Heng noted, which would also involve enhanced support for startups, especially deep-tech ones.
The government will also design stronger linkages between RIE 2030 and Singapore’s next phase of industry transformation to drive the city-state’s next bound of economic growth.
At the same time, Singapore hopes to contribute to solutions that tackle global challenges such ageing populations and climate change.
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