Creating an innovation culture - Singapore’s not-so-secret formula to becoming a regional tech hub
- Singapore’s success depends on an iron triangle of government, private capital and corporates - and it starts with creating the right mindset and talent
When Darius Cheung co-founded Singaporean mobile security start-up tenCube in 2005, the city state was not yet the start-up hub it is today, flush with venture capital or billion-dollar start-up companies with their eye trained on expansion throughout the Southeast Asia region.
But back then the government had already put in place schemes and grants aimed at laying the foundations for Singapore to evolve into the regional innovation and start-up hub it is today, from encouraging private capital inflows to providing the necessary infrastructure for start-ups to flourish.
Thanks to a government co-financing scheme that matched private capital investment in start-ups dollar-for-dollar up to a maximum of S$300,000 (US$215,000), Cheung and his two co-founders managed to raise a total of S$600,000 to get tenCube off the ground.
“The Singapore government’s role was very important in pushing this forward ... they helped to ensure that the soil was fertile [for start-ups to grow],” Cheung said in an interview.
Five years after tenCube was founded, McAfee acquired the company in a S$25 million deal, making tenCube one of the first Singaporean technology start-ups to successfully secure an exit. Cheung went on to found 99.co, a map-based property search engine targeted at Southeast Asia.
Over the last decade, Singapore has fashioned itself into a start-up hub in the Southeast Asian region, with technology unicorns like Grab headquartered in the country. The local start-up scene also boasts up-and-comers such as mobile classifieds ads firm Carousell as well as cash rebate platform Shopback, both of which were founded by locals.
