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Start-up ecosystem ‘needs to grow’

SINGAPORE — Singapore start-ups need to scale up growth and innovation to ride the next technological wave as the Republic’s Smart Nation initiative kicks into high gear, said Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative.

SINGAPORE — Singapore start-ups need to scale up growth and innovation to ride the next technological wave as the Republic’s Smart Nation initiative kicks into high gear, said Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative.

Speaking at the opening of Techventure, an annual tech start-up and investor event, Dr Balakrishnan pointed out how Singapore’s start-up scene has grown more vibrant with new start-ups formed and financing deals being reported regularly, but that it now had to build on creating a highly networked ecosystem.

Singapore will put in place not only infrastructure and policies, but also encourage a culture of experimentation to create solutions to support that, he added. “For innovation to occur, there has to be a highly networked ecosystem. There must be continuous interactions across all the different actors in order to share knowledge and push back boundaries. It is not only about the stock of ideas that matters, but also how the stock of knowledge is distributed across the economy.” 

In line with that, a slew of support measures was announced yesterday, including fresh funding as well as an initiative to match companies here with those in the United Kingdom to work on Smart City projects.

In the third tranche of funding for the Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF), the National Research Foundation (NRF) is pumping in S$40 million over 10 years to support local early-stage high-tech companies.

This fund seeks to speed up the growth of high-tech start-ups, with the NRF matching dollar for dollar any financing that large local enterprises make in local start-ups. 

“This facilitates the development of technology ecosystems, where small companies can cluster around a core of larger companies. It serves as a way for large local enterprises to remain competitive, to renew their technology stock by accessing new technologies invented by smaller start-ups around them in the ecosystem,” said Dr Balakrishnan. “Investee companies, in turn can leverage the organisational resources of their corporate partners to overcome barriers to commercialisation, and access networks and expertise to go global,” he added. 

Other notable announcements made on the first day of Techventure include the SG-UK Joint Test-Bedding Initiative, where SMEs from both countries will be called on to submit joint proposals under a Future Cities theme, with specific focus areas in mobility, “secure nation”, and water.

Successful proposals will be funded by either the UK or Singapore. For local start-ups that are selected, up to 70 per cent of the project costs will be covered by SPRING Singapore.

Dr Balakrishnan said: “We are going to put in place infrastructure, policies and capabilities to enable a Smart Nation and a future, sustainable city. We want to encourage a culture of experimentation and building, working with citizens and companies to co-create solutions. We are not only engaged in theoretical experiments, or hacking for its own sake. We want you to hack the future city, and that hacking space is Singapore.”

Further, a consortium was launched to encourage collaborations between institutes of higher learning and the industry, in the area of photonics research. This will include next-generation, ultra-fast Internet technologies. Since 2007, the NRF has awarded nine projects in the area of photonics, investing nearly S$75 million in grants. These were in the areas of fibre-optic medical devices, among others.

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