Singapore is opening its doors wider for Australian startups as an Aussie Landing Pad programme arrives on our sunny shores.
Image Credit: e27.co
As part of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2015 between the two nations, the Landing Pad programme will give Australian startups “access to a network of contacts in Singapore and ASEAN, as well as in-market business development, investment and mentorship opportunities.” Singapore is the latest of the five Landing Pads around the world – with San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, and Berlin rounding up the list.
At the launch event held on the 13th of March, S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, said in a speech that “besides increasing entrepreneurial activity and venture funding, another essential factor for innovation is the free flow and exchange of information and ideas between individuals, companies, institutions and countries.”
Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, referred to a study of global creativity by Martin Prosperity Institute, where “Australia was judged the most creative nation on earth.” In comparison, Singapore ranked ninth overall in the world, but is rated the most creative Asian city.
Bishop followed up, saying that “People are risk takers, innovative and they need an outlet for their ideas. Here in Singapore we will see many Australians meet with like-minded people and who knows what will happen.”
Although the programme was just launched earlier in the week, four companies have already gotten a head start: Ebilities, which works to assist companies in the hiring process through “mental agility tests”; Hipflask, an app that aims to deliver personalised city guides to users; Quitch, an edtech startup that hopes to help students with classroom engagement through the use of modern technology; and Zed Technologies, a cloud-based delivery service for medical imaging.
The Landing Pad programme comes at an opportune time, when the Singapore government is looking to draw innovative foreign startups to the city – through the Startup SG branding, and the considerable number of schemes to benefit them – while expanding out into newer markets.