SINGAPORE — While the Singapore startup ecosystem of today ranks highly among many global innovation hubs, the scene was much less vibrant as recently as just a decade ago.
SINGAPORE — It was not too long ago that detractors were pouring cold water on Singapore's efforts to nurture entrepreneurs and startups.
Just last year alone, 11 Singapore-based startups achieved unicorn status — or reached US$1 billion valuation — bringing the total number to 22, according to written reply by Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong in February. “Of course, Singapore’s strategic location at the heart of Southeast Asia cannot be understated,” said Mr Edwin Chow, assistant chief executive officer for innovation and enterprise at EnterpriseSG, in response to TODAY's queries.
Noting that the Republic’s reputation for nurturing startups “developed only over the last decade”, the report outlined broad factors commonly cited by stakeholders that make Singapore conducive for such enterprises. “For example, many Vietnamese and Indian startups prefer to set up in Singapore, even though their markets are in Vietnam or India, because it is easier to secure investment that way,” said Dr Wong, adding that there is also greater trust in Singapore's legal framework for investment.
Nevertheless, experts interviewed by TODAY offered differing views on what they felt were the most important benchmarks of success for a startup ecosystem, and how Singapore has fared based on these factors. For Dr Wong of NUS, an indicator of the vibrancy of a start-up ecosystem is the"self-sustaining, virtuous of flow of entrepreneurial talents and capital in the system”.
Citing the macroeconomic environment, the experts told TODAY that these developments do not, in any way, reflect negatively on Singapore's startup ecosystem. Mr Gerard Lim, partner at Singapore-based accelerator XS APAC, referred to the prospect of a potential looming recession and the rise in interest rates around the world.
Apart from startups that have succeeded in penetrating regional markets, Singapore is also home to those with a strong global reach such as PatSnap, a unicorn company which has over 10,000 customers in more than 40 countries. He said that he and his business partner Daniil Moskovtsov, who is Ukrainian, met in Singapore through the EnterpriseSG-supported incubation programme Entrepreneur First.
With so much business potential in the region, it is only natural that some entrepreneurs set up shop in Singapore with the deliberate intention of tapping this market. “The market size of Southeast Asia or Asia alone is big enough to create category winning companies. So for some companies, it's never their strategy to be global,” she said.
Citing the likes of Vietnam and Indonesia, a World Bank report last year noted that Singapore's neighbouring countries"have created their own startup ecosystems", thereby increasing the regional competition. “We have not had experienced executives who have built and scaled global teams, global programmes, global services,” said Ms Sai of Unravel Carbon, who attributed this to the relative nascency of Singapore's startup ecosystem.
However, Mr Ku said sometimes, going global might not require a company to offer cutting-edge solutions. Citing the examples of Razer and Secretlab, which are both gaming peripheral companies, he noted that startups can use good marketing to penetrate a niche market across the globe.“For Singapore, it’s hard for us to create a mainstream global success, for example, cell phones. We just don't have a big home market," he said.
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