Photo: Techventure Facebook page
Venture capitalist and private equity firms from around the region gathered today at the Suntec City Convention Hall for the Techventure conference, which was opened by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
In his speech, Minister Teo announced the implementation of the Early-Stage Venture Funding Scheme (ESVF) by the National Research Foundation (NRF), of which he is the Chairman.
Said Minister Teo, “NRF will partner leading venture capitalist firms to invest in early-stage technology companies that are based in Singapore. Through a one-to-one co-investment approach, the total pool of investment funds for early stage companies will amount to SGD100 million.”
The government has already injected SGD50 million into the scheme during an initial stage, which saw the setting up of five early-stage funds in Singapore.
The ESVF will be funding rounds of the one million to three million dollar range, a more significant figure than that of the Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS), which on its own already increasing investments in the biotech and cleantech industries.
Another national initiative the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) also announced earlier this year that it was reviewing its policies.
