SPEECH BY MS LOW YEN LING, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF TRADE & INDUSTRY, AT THE LAUNCH OF TECHSG , ON 26 NOVEMBER 2015, 4.00PM AT NUS ENTERPRISE@BLK71
Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre
Tim Greisinger, Managing Director, IBM Singapore
Distinguished Speakers and Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
1. Thank you for inviting me to be your guest of honour at launch of TechSG. It is my pleasure to be here with all of you.
Entrepreneurship in Singapore
2. Entrepreneurship is important for Singapore. It is a key driver of innovation in our economy, and an important source of economic renewal. It also provides an alternate pathway to success, allowing individuals to chart their own future and achieve their aspirations.
3. Singapore’s start-up ecosystem has matured over the years. The number of active start-ups in Singapore has more than doubled from 24,000 in 2005 to over 55,000 in 2014. We are also gaining prominence on the global stage as a start-up hub. Recently, Singapore was ranked 10th among start-up ecosystems globally in the 2015 Start-up Ecosystem Report by Compass, a business analytics firm.
4. The progress that we have made is a result of close collaboration between different players in the start-up ecosystem, including the private sector, institutes of higher learning, and the Government. This approach has served us well in the past and will continue to be important as we seek to build a more dynamic and vibrant start-up scene in Singapore.
Building a Vibrant Ecosystem
5. Collaboration has been important for Singapore’s start-up ecosystem in three important ways. First, the government has worked closely with the private sector in improving the availability of financing for start-ups. For instance, through the Business Angels Scheme (BAS) and Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme (SEEDS), SPRING co-invests with business angels and venture capital firms in promising start-ups. Since 2001, more than $80 million in funding support has been committed to more than 220 companies. SPRING is also working with financial institutions to pilot venture debt as a novel financing instrument for start-ups, with SPRING sharing 50% of the loan default risk. This will allow start-ups to tap on debt financing as a cheaper alternative to equity financing, and SPRING aims to catalyse 100 venture debt loans, totalling about $500 million over the pilot period of two years.
6. Second, multiple parties have worked closely together to enhance infrastructural support for start-ups. The LaunchPad @ one-north, which was opened earlier this year, is a collaborative effort between several government agencies, as well as private sector players such as the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE). ACE, in particular, plays an important role in curating activities at the Launchpad, and helping to link different parties together. Today, the LaunchPad enjoys a high occupancy rate of more than 90% and by 2017, it is expected to house as many as 500 start-ups and 35 incubators.
7. Third, collaboration is essential to enabling individual start-ups to get off the ground. This is well illustrated by the role that NUS Enterprise has played in encouraging entrepreneurship. NUS Enterprise, a key player in our entrepreneurship landscape, provides start-ups with access to a strong network of incubation facilities, dedicated mentorship, access to funding, and linkages with business organisations for partnerships. PigeonLab, which provides the Pigeonhole Live service for facilitating question and answer sessions via mobile devices, is a good example of a startup that has benefitted from the support that NUS Enterprise provides. The company was established in 2010 and incubated within NUS Enterprise. Today PigeonLab’s service, known as Pigeonhole Live, has been used at conferences and events in more than 30 countries.
Opportunities for Collaboration with MNCs
8. MNCs are increasingly keen to engage in open innovation and collaborate with start-ups to develop new technologies with them. Such collaborations can create greater value for businesses, consumers and the industry at large, and present an important opportunity to advance Singapore’s start-up scene.
9. For instance, in 2013, ViSenze and Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba Inc launched a joint collaboration to establish a visual fashion search and recognition service on Rakuten’s social and shopping sites in Taiwan. In this partnership, Rakuten tapped on ViSenze’s expertise in visual search and recognition technologies to allow customers to search and buy fashion items with user-generated images instead of words. This collaboration has increased engagement and conversion rate for Rakuten Taiwan by about 50%, and helped ViSenze build up track record to work with other e-commerce players. Today, ViSenze’s key clients include internet retailers and marketplaces such as Zalora, Reebonz, Flipkart, as well as patent search engines like PatSnap.
Launch of TechSG
10. Today’s event is yet another good example of how collaboration with MNCs can add value. NUS Enterprise has worked with IBM to create a TechSG, a digital platform for Singapore’s technological entrepreneurship ecosystem. TechSG will connect key players such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, investors, large companies and the Government. Beyond offering information on key players, TechSG is structured as an open platform for different parties to contribute and share useful information on events, news and courses with the community, and for individual users to create their own profiles and provide updates. Through TechSG’s role as an online community hub, promising start-ups can build connections to help them grow, strategize and acquire new talents, partners and investors.
Conclusion
11. In closing, I would like to congratulate NUS Enterprise and IBM on the launch of TechSG. I am hopeful that this platform will create many opportunities for companies, both large and small, to collaborate and work together through partnerships.
12. With that, I wish everyone a pleasant evening ahead. Thank you.