2018

Singapore Business Review

Singapore needs to push its startups beyond seed funding. “… one in five fintech firms lament the fact that Singapore doesn’t have enough venture capital to go around with 66% claiming that the current level of government assistance is inadequate to power their businesses.”

“The Fintech sector in Singapore is vibrant with the Monetary Authority of Singapore taking an active role in encouraging startups, and driving corporate innovation in financial institutions. Contrary to the survey, we believe that there is an abundance of exuberance with the easy availability of grants, venture capital, and cryptocurrency fund-raising in the form of ICOs,” said James Tan, Managing Partner of VC firm, Quest Ventures.

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YourStory

Senior Analyst Jasmine Toh was invited to Unbound Bahrain as a speaker on the topic of “Investors, VCs and their Strategies”. As the only female investor representative from Southeast Asia, Jasmine also shared her thoughts on female entrepreneurship and opportunities in new sectors.

“The small Arab nation has been gearing up to welcome startups, investors and HNIs from across GCC (Gulf Council Confederation) and MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa) regions.

With a push from the government to move from oil to innovation, the Middle East today is looking at tech innovation and startups closely. Bahrain’s Economic Development Board and its semi-government organisation Tamkeen are looking to make Bahrain a Middle-Eastern hotbed for startups.”

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Money FM 89.3

Senior Analyst Jasmine Toh was interviewed on The Breakfast Huddle on Money FM 89.3.

Hosted by Yasmin Jonkers and Elliott Danker, this morning’s huddle covered mindsets, transformation in traditional industries, the Startup SG Founder funding from SPRING Singapore, the Productivity Solutions Grant which replaces the Productvity & Innovation Credit, and others.

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The Straits Times

Shaun Heng, Founder & CEO of Eatsyapp.co, a Quest Ventures-backed startup, was covered in The Straits Times today.

“Eatsy connects restaurants to their diners and helps them answer the age-old questions of ‘Who my diners are’, ‘What they like to eat’ and ‘How can I get them back with the right promotions’.”

Eatsy is backed by Quest Ventures, a venture fund for technology companies, and SPRING Singapore under the Startup SG Founder grant.

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VTV1

Analyst Khor Qianyi was interviewed on Vietnam Television 1 (VTV1) for her impressions of the Vietnam startup scene.

She contrasted the difference between Singapore and Vietnam startups, highlighted the importance of the Vietnamese market, and stressed the critical role of accelerators in strengthening the startup landscape.

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Marketing Magazine

While “digital transformation” is probably one of the most over-used terms in the past few years, to embrace it, is not easy.

Interviewed in the Marketing magazine, Jeffrey Seah, venture partner at Quest Ventures, said transformation itself means restarting the business with a new mindset and operational structure. If SIA really has transformation in its agenda, it has to “depart from the established topping up mindset” that is prevalent among many government bodies and MNCs.

The “topping up” mindset comes from adopting best practices from other companies (or start-ups) to gain ideas, and add that to the current business model. But it doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the restart button as transformation ideally should. For SIA’s transformation to work, it requires the company to have the mindset that it is changing the business from the core.”

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