$30 million is being set aside by Singapore's entreprise development agency,Spring, to help the formation and growth of start-ups in emerging sectors like medical and clean technology.
This is the second tranche of funding under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2015 (RIE 2015) plan and it will be managed by Spring seeds Capital (SSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spring Singapore.
$40 million was first committed in 2011 to encourage the formation and growth of start-ups in medical technology. Two accelerators, Clearbridge BSA and Singapore Medtech Accelerator, helped identify and co-invest with SSC in high-potential medical technology start-ups. As well as co-investing, the accelerators have taken a hands-on approach to help the start-ups build up their management teams, meet regulatory requirements and connect with potential customers.
$40 million was first committed in 2011 to encourage the formation and growth of start-ups in medical technology. Two accelerators, Clearbridge BSA and Singapore Medtech Accelerator, helped identify and co-invest with SSC in high-potential medical technology start-ups. As well as co-investing, the accelerators have taken a hands-on approach to help the start-ups build up their management teams, meet regulatory requirements and connect with potential customers.
The RIE plan takes into account the knowledge and capital-intensive nature of the medical technology sector, which means start-ups usually take a longer time to commercialise their research. However, with the global medical technology industry expected to reach US$300 billion in 2017, driven largely by an ageing global population and the prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, the demand for high-quality medical technology products and services is also expected to increase.
Similarly, the global cleantech market, which is estimated to be worth at US$1 trillion a year, is expected to continue growing as environmental sustainability becomes an increasing concern for governments and corporations. It is hoped that the additional $30 million funding will help to give a boost to these sectors by encouraging the formation of more innovative start-ups and commercialising intellectual property.
Source: DigitalQuadrant
