The start-up’s in Singapore can now expect more opportunities for company formation in Singapore and collaborations with global investors as Enterprise Singapore is working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to accelerate funding.
They are doing this through highly selected and organised deal-making sessions. The first of these kind of sessions was kicked off recently as segment of the international launch for Slingshot 2019, a global start-up pitching contest organised by Enterprise Singapore. Over 100 start-ups got a chance to network with approximately 50 investors, venture capitalists and corporate funds.
The collaboration with MAS is part of a wider strategy by Enterprise Singapore to strengthen the local start-up ecosystem by adopting a market-led approach, bringing together academia, government and the private sector to create solutions that address market needs in Singapore and the region.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted that Asia is going to account for over half of global gross domestic product (GDP) by the year 2050.
Edwin Chow, who is the assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore, said that Enterprise Singapore would intensify its commitments with local and overseas partners to facilitate start-ups to scale up more rapidly.
He also said that the targeted platforms that the start-up’s get for connecting with investors and customers serve as precious opportunities for them to access resources like financing, and also open avenues for co-innovation along with leading corporates.
The other steps announced actually build on the current initiatives. For example, 17 additional accredited mentor partners will be brought in to the Startup SG Founder programme to offer extra mentorship and start-up capital to the first-time businesses or entrepreneurs. This will take the total number of mentors to 45, who are expected to coach around 200 start-ups in the coming year.
The new mentors in the list include the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), talent incubator Antler, and South-east Asia’s largest medical device business, Advanced MedTech.
Enterprise Singapore is also closely functioning with the Economic Development Board to bring at least four new cities to the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) network in 2019. The GIA is basically a network of domestic and overseas partners in all the key innovation hubs.
Besides, Enterprise Singapore has also been affiliating with different government agencies since the year 2017 to launch calls for proposals from start-ups firms to handle the challenges across urban solutions, logistics, trade and construction. There is a pipeline of 24 calls for proposals in 2019.
