04/14/2015
Singapore / Industry
Singapore may not have the scale or reach of Silicon Valley but regionally, it is a superior place to launch a digital start-up..
What makes a city a great place for digital start-ups?
The research group, Startup Genome, asked this question a few years ago and came up with a set of criteria: start-up output, funding, performance, entrepreneurial mindset, trendsetting, support, talent, and differentiation. It then ranked the world’s best “start-up cities”.
On top was, unsurprisingly, Silicon Valley, with Tel Aviv and Los Angeles coming next. Out of the 20 cities that made the list, four were in the Asia Pacific: Sydney, Singapore, Melbourne and Bangalore.
Since gaining independence 50 years ago, Singapore has worked hard to become the regional hub for Southeast Asia in all sorts of industries from shipping to banking to aviation to petrochemicals. Now, it is pushing to do the same in the digital space.
A milestone was reached last July when Garena, a Singapore start-up, proudly joined the billion dollar internet club with valuation of US$1.2 billion and a massive user following as on its global gaming platform. The city-state seems determined to play mid-wife in the births of many more billion dollar digital businesses. Certainly, its start-up ecosystem has been growing and developing steadily over the past five years. To date, more than 80 Singapore start-ups have reached their first significant round of venture capital funding, known as a Series A round.
Singapore, though, still has a way to go. It needs to chalk up 150 to 200 Series A rounds to be really globally noticed as a significant digital start-up centre. It knows this and has even set its own target of 300 within the next five years.
To read the full report, download the PDF.
