The Edge Singapore
Singapore’s capital market ecosystem has been drawing increased attention from policymakers lately. In August 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) set up the Equities Market Review Group to come up with measures to strengthen Singapore’s stock market. The group, which was chaired by National Development Minister and deputy chairman of the MAS, Chee Hong Tat, released its final report on Nov 19.
This is not the first time Singapore has sought to supercharge its start-up and funding ecosystem. Back in July 2008, the National Research Foundation (NRF) launched the Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF) scheme. The goal of the ESVF scheme was to help catalyse venture capital for high-tech start-ups based in Singapore.
James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures, says the same strategy can be used to bolster Singapore’s growth capital ecosystem. “The playbook is the same, pretty much worldwide. Seed them with some money,” says Tan, who is also the former chair for the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, a trade association that represents start-ups in Singapore.
“The challenge then is will they continue to stay here after they run their first or second fund?” Tan adds, noting that venture capital funds such as Golden Gate Ventures have shifted their focus to other markets such as the Middle East. “So after the initial fund, will we continue to have them, to continue to invest in the belief of this ecosystem?”
Since 1991, Singapore has invested over $125 billion into its national research and innovation efforts over a series of eight five-year R&D masterplans. The first plan, the National Technology Plan 1995, ran from 1991 to 1995 and set aside $2 billion. The latest plan, Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2030 will run from 2026 to 2030 and has a budget of $37 billion.
Quest Ventures’ Tan says the hefty investment has not borne much fruit for Singapore in terms of public listings. “I really hope that the RIE plans can focus a lot more on commercialisation of IP as opposed to funding research that never gets commercialised and sits on a shelf. Centres for research are built but nothing gets commercialised.”
“This is a waste of our current opportunities that are open to us. So many people are looking at this space and there are plenty of investors interested in deep tech. Somehow our researchers, perhaps, are content with just researching and not commercialising,” Tan adds.
