There is talk in Singapore that with all the fund mega raises this year, early-stage venture funds are moving further upstream.
On Monday, 15 April I had the great pleasure to welcome Enterprise Singapore to San Francisco with a special reception of investors and startups at the Runway Innovation Hub. The purpose of the evening was to honor and strengthen the venture builders and early stage deep tech bridges between Singapore and our investment communities in the Americas.
Some of the investors, venture builders and startups who attended the reception were Mark Goldstein, UCSF HealthHub and Advisors, Chris Rynning and Mike Nikou, Partners, Antler, Yi Ming Ng, Managing Partner, Tribe Accelerator, Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures, Faz Bashi, Venture Partner Boston Millennia Partners, James Batey, UC Capital Partners, KC Ong, Fusion Fund, and Dr Jeremy Brown, Associate of the Plug and Play Tech Center IoT / Mobility Cohort.
It was fantastic to connect Enterprise Singapore and key members of our Singapore and US deep tech ecosystem with my colleagues at Raiven Capital who are well positioned in the US and Canada to accelerate pre-Series A+ deal flow from our portfolio of high growth Asia Pacific ventures scaling into the Americas.
Edwin Chow, Assistant Chief Executive Officer Innovation and Enterprise at ESG shared how Singapore is well-positioned to take advantage of this global trend of deep tech.
Coupled with their 36 offices across the world, ESG SEEDS serves as an excellent accelerator for international growth. Providing 1:1 investment of up to $4M for deep tech startups over 3 rounds - with up to 70% of their upside going to approved investors, ESG continues to provide valuable capital support to the ecosystem.
The country boasts a robust system for R&D and clinical research within hospitals, along with a strong and supportive intellectual property and governance infrastructure, reasonable taxation, and it remains the leading destination for South East Asia or Asia Pacific market entry.
Irene Cheong, Director of the Industry Liaison Office and her team at NUS (National University of Singapore) Enterprise, consistently drive quality deal flow into the ecosystem. Their program GRIP moves research outcomes from NUS labs to the global market.
The evening provided the opportunity to identify and connect with like-minded syndication partners in both ecosystems. Raiven is looking forward to strengthening bridge building with Singapore as the regional hub for the growth of deep tech companies throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Paul Dugsin, General Partner, Raiven Capital Toronto will now look to accelerate the opportunities for both our Singapore colleagues and our Canadian community by making similar introductions in Toronto and throughout Canada. Canada has global-class talent, open immigration, higher public dollar support, lower exchange, and lower housing costs in contrast to Silicon Valley. These hard and soft factors create an advantage to high-cost regions by creating longer runways and a greater chance of an exit.
New meetings to explore syndication were set up throughout the evening across Canada, the US, and Singapore.
It was clear to me that while megafunds are plenty, for accelerating deep tech R&D from Asia to the Americas, the early stage tech venture capital scene is certainly alive and thriving.
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About Raiven Capital: Born global. We seek revolutionary technology built by cognitively diverse teams. We apply our deep knowledge and operational mastery to forge risk into a return. We nurture in Canada and scale beyond.
About Enterprise Singapore: Enterprise Singapore is the government agency championing enterprise development. ESG work with committed companies to build capabilities, innovate and internationalize. ESG also support the growth of Singapore as a hub for global trading and startups. As the national standards and accreditation body, ESG continues to build trust in Singapore’s products and services through quality and standards.
About NUS Enterprise: NUS taps its highly skilled pool of graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and staff to establish and run the start-ups, employing cutting-edge technologies that will give them a sustained advantage over incumbents or create new markets. Their program GRIP moves research outcomes from NUS labs to the market and brings the next generation of technologies to the world. Examples of NUS Enterprise spinoffs include StratifiCare, the world's first severe dengue prognostic and Osteopore, a bioresorbable implant that is used for covering trephination burr holes in neurosurgery.