Grab and Lazada are in line for the mentorship.
Startups are taking over the world, literally. Locally, the number of startups has more than doubled, but there have also been significant increases in the number of startup exits.
While we do see success stories like when the online marketplace Lazada is being acquired at US$1 billion, it is quite rare given the fierce global competition for entrepreneurial talent and funding. Which is why Startup SG is acting as the umbrella branding for all local support schemes, since gathering the startups will help them increase global connectivity and funding platforms.
SPRING Singapore, our development agency is partnering with fellow agencies to accelerate the development of startups. To help them do that, they are also roping in 17 mentors – all of which are from successful private companies such as Singapore-based private investment firm Focustech Ventures and Israel-based incubator Trendlines Medical Singapore.
The mentor list also includes local universities and polytechnics in Singapore – since they are equipped with the sufficient manpower and knowledge for the mentorship.
These mentors will take on start-ups, notably from fields such as artificial intelligence, cyber security and digital health, and match them with the right government funding programmes.
With a five-year budget of $220 million, Startup SG aims to invest 70% of it on qualifying startups, and the rest of it on first-time entrepreneurs. So far, some of the startups qualified under this scheme includes the e-commerce Lazada and the ride-hailing app Grab.
The scheme has great ambitions; it plans to double the pool of high-potential startups in 10 years’ time and move away from the current agency-centric way of giving help to startups – which will see our private sector flourish, especially for tech companies in Singapore.
