In line with its aim to enrich the diversity of Singapore’s infocomm ecosystem, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) will be focusing on three development themes over the next three to five years to develop the start-ups in the infocomm ecosystem. They are:
- Innovation Catalyst - Providing resources to help startups in their development phases
- Market Connector - Linking startups to emerging and growth markets as well as stimulating new
market demands
- Talent Bridge - Attracting quality venture capital-backed startups and serial entrepreneurs to Singapore
IDA wants to encourage and catalyse the creation of Intellectual Property in Singapore. |
On the first development theme of building up Singapore’s role as an Innovation Catalyst, Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director, Industry Development Group, IDA, said: “We want to encourage and catalyse the creation of Intellectual Property in Singapore.”
For startups, this means access to resources to help them cross the “Valley of Death”, the typical phase of their growth when they face deep cash flow challenges, so that they can focus on developing their product or service. Under programmes such as the National Research Foundation’s Technology Incubation Scheme, for example, the government has selected seven incubators to nurture early-stage high-tech startups, and will provide up to 85 per cent co-investment in startups identified by the Incubator Managers, up to a maximum of S$500,000 per company.
IDA is also looking to increase the “Idea Connection” in Singapore. Mr Khaw cited the example of Singapore-based Intellectual Ventures which is looking to increase “invention velocity” here by taking inventions, providing them with intellectual property protection and sharing the revenues when those inventions are commercialised.
The second development theme - Market Connector - aims to stimulate new market demand, connections and the growth of digital markets. “We recognise we are a small market, so we want to encourage connections to the international market,” said Mr Khaw.
This can be done by building bridges to regional markets. He cited the example of the SingTel Innovation Exchange, which offers startups the opportunity to access 260 million potential users from around the region. “The scale is totally different from just serving Singapore,” said Mr Khaw.
Startups can also tap on IDA’s offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, Doha and Bangalore to establish business connections in those markets.
The third development theme is to position Singapore as a Talent Bridge. “We want to bring in experienced entrepreneurs to help to upgrade the capabilities and experience base of Singapore startups and entrepreneurs,” said Mr Khaw. At the same time, not all engineering needs to be done in Singapore. Another way that Singapore can function as a talent bridge will be to enable companies here to tap on production bases in nearby Philippines, Thailand and China, he said.