An Overview Of Venture Capital Financing In Singapore

It was certainly the establishment of the TIF (Technopreneurship Investment Fund) that has led to the sudden growth of venture capital financing in Singapore. Although still in its nascent stage, the venture capital industry in Singapore has witnessed significant increase in the number of VC firms over the past few years.

The government of Singapore is actively involved in boosting the country’ startup eco system. For this reason, the government has started many popular initiatives and Block projects that are meant to provide the entrepreneurs with required essentials for setting their business off the ground.

There are many venture capital funds that are operating under the government. Foreign entrepreneurs In Singapore, however, need to have a Singaporean partner or a VC partner in their venture so as to gain capital from the government.

Today, Singapore has emerged as a VC hub. Technology companies from across the world come in search of venture capital financing in Singapore as the country has emerged as one of most business-friendly nations in the world. The favorable government policies, well educated population, and a friendly culture have together made Singapore Asia’s financial and commercial centers.

The government is striving to attract more and more venture capital firms to invest in startups and to make this happen, it has even increased the funding from the government itself. Apart from the capital, the government also provides the startups with other fundamental facilities like office spaces, training, mentoring and equipment.

The private venture capital financing in Singapore is also gradually expanding. The members of Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association are constantly increasing in numbers. Venture capital financing from government, private funds and business angels have become the prime source of capital for the Singapore startups. Not only local, even foreign investors are also coming to Singapore to expand their business.

Singapore is on its way to recreate Silicon Valley in Asia. The National Research Foundation, Singapore, has selected it second batch of venture funds under its Early Stage Venture Fund Scheme (ESVF) to raise a total of S$120million for early stage investments. In this bracket, the government will invest S$10 million each on a one to one basis in 6 funds. The VC firms selected by the government include Jungle Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Walden International, New Asia Investments, SBI Ven Capital and Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Under the ESVF Scheme, the government co-invests with selected venture capital funds to invest in the early stage tech startups. The initiative aims at attracting more and more Venture Capital Financing in Singapore and enable the startups to set their businesses off the ground.

The Series A startups usually approach the business angels or certain VC firms who show interest at this stage of developments. The International investors are, however, mostly seen at the later-stage investments as the businesses are already established and the risk involved is significantly less.

The best strategy for the entrepreneurs is to spread their networks as much as possible as this will greatly improve their visibility in the global market and help them attract the investors.

Merger Alpha, based in Singapore, is an intelligent network of buyers, sellers, strategic and financial investors and advisors that aims at fulfilling the needs of the fast growing Asian markets. For those who want to increase their networks so as to get access to their potential investors or buyers can easily become a member of this network.

For more information on venture capital financing in Singapore, feel free to visit http://mergeralpha.com/