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DATE 01 Jun 2004
According to The Wall Street Journal, there's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in Singapore, thanks to the flurry of government and industry support on offer.
On 28 January 2004, an article in The Wall Street Journal lauded Singapore as a new hotspot for budding entrepreneurs. It called entrepreneurs "the new state-sanctioned heroes" and reported that the government's "entrepreneurial push is the latest in an effort to create a more plucky breed of Singaporeans." Global business magazine Forbes has also named Singapore the second best place in the world to start a business.
Indeed, there has never been a better time to strike out as an entrepreneur in the Lion City. In its bid to revitalise the economy and maintain Singapore's competitive edge, government seed units began offering grant seed money and less red tape in the late 1990s to lend support to entrepreneurs with great business ideas.
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One good example is Gabriel Goh. The ex-Ministry of Law civil servant broke his six-year bond with the government agency to start IQMind, an online education company which provided curriculum and Intranet and software programmes which allowed teachers to give and receive assignments online. With help from the government and private sources, Goh raised a further $14.5 million and IQMind quickly expanded beyond Singapore, signing deals with about 100 schools each in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Last year, the ever-enterprising Goh set up Einst Technology, aimed at helping institutions and companies design and commercialise equipment for the life sciences industry.
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Einst Technology's Infrared Thermography System (left) and Research Microscope System (right)
SEEDS OF GROWTH
One of the ways that the Economic Development Board (EDB) is helping intrepid entrepreneurs is through its Startup Enterprise Development Scheme (SEEDS). With this scheme, every dollar raised by a startup from third-party investors will be matched by EDB up to a maximum of $300,000. Third-party investors must put in a minimum sum of $75,000 each and both EDB and third-party investors will take equity stakes in the company in proportion to their investments. The result is a win-win situation for all: The startup gets its precious initial funding and EDB and third-party investors will share a pro-rated level of gain from sales.
Similarly, the Growth Financing Programme supports early stage, Singapore-based growth companies with the potential to become globally competitive enterprises. Companies that have successfully completed their product development can apply for financing for overseas market expansion. To qualify, companies should be engaged in the development of new or better products, processes and applications in the manufacturing and services sector; or innovating in the form of technology and/or business models.
A DATE WITH THE EXPERTS
Addressing the need of new and small companies to attract experienced and credible people to serve on their board, EDB has also spearheaded the Director and Advisors for Technopreneurial Enterprises programme (DATE). This initiative matches seasoned business people who will act as advisors or board directors to technopreneurial enterprises in need of advice, contacts and strategic insights. Again, it is an arrangement beneficial to all parties as successful business people, including those who have retired but remain keen to contribute to Singapore business, gain new opportunities.
Global business magazine Forbes named Singapore the second best place in the world to start a business.
STRIKING A DEAL
Startups seeking venture funding from the Singapore venture capital community can turn to DEALS (Deals Exchange Online for Startups), another EDB initiative that connects new businesses to the right investors. At the DEALS website, users can register and upload their business plan, which will be automatically matched and directed to the appropriate venture capital companies in Singapore.
Besides private "incubator" organisations that offer support to startups, EDB also has its own Incubation Unit to help nurture new industries with high growth potential. Some of these industries include industrial IT, nanotechnology, security and optics/photonics. So far an island-wide network of locations and facilities for technopreneurs, aptly named HOTSpots (Hub of Technopreneurs), has been and is being built. These 'HOTSpots' bring together technology-related companies in surroundings conducive to the exchange of ideas and enterprise building. So far, seven HOTSpots have been established, among them The Enterprise @ Jurong East and iAxil @ Singapore Science Park.
NURTURING THE YOUNG
There are also specialised programmes at tertiary level to steer budding entrepreneurs in the right direction. At the National University of Singapore (NUS), an Entrepreneurship Centre has been set up to nurture the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation through education and outreach programmes. The Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) revolutionary graduate diploma Technopreneurship and Innovation Programme (TIP) has similarly met with resounding success. It has even spawned a TIP club that works in tandem with NTU's Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre to drive student entrepreneurship efforts on campus.
Outside schools, organisations like the Young Entrepreneurs' Organisation (YEO) help members through an array of educational and networking opportunities. With members in more than 470 cities and 35 countries, YEO literally puts young Singaporean entrepreneurs in touch with the world.
Without doubt, these are exciting times for Singaporeans with great business ideas and a drive to succeed as entrepreneurs.
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MAKING A SPLASH
For a young girl who grew up without running water, Olivia Lum is more than making up for that with copious amounts of it as an adult. The founder and leader of Hyflux, one of the top firms in the water market in Asia, Lum worked her way through university, emerging with a degree in chemistry.
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Having grown up surrounded by poverty, Lum viewed the business world as a means of escape. In 1989, using her life's savings of $20,000, Lum founded Hyflux, a company that would pursue various water-related ventures including investing in desalination plants in Singapore. Today, Hyflux is one of the biggest water treatment companies in Singapore.
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Among Hyflux's accomplishments - the setting of a new international water standard by building Singapore's first NEWater plant, which uses the latest in water treatment technology also developed and refined by the company. With its first ever desalination plant supplying drinking water, Hyflux hopes to meet some 10 per cent of the island's water needs when the plant is completed in 2005.
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For its groundbreaking efforts, Hyflux was named by Forbes as one of "Best 200 Small Companies In The World". In addition, it won the Enterprise Award at the Singapore Business Awards 2004 - a shining example of successful local technopreneurship.
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