Deep-Dive Into Singapore’s FinTech Landscape – Investment Perspective
Over the next few weeks, MEDICI brings you a series of articles, exploring FinTech in the ASEAN region. The articles, each focused on a different ASEAN country, provide comprehensive insights into the FinTech investment landscape in the region.
- The 5.7 million inhabitants' city-state tops the ASEAN region in terms of literacy (96.8%), life expectancy (82.7 years), cell phones per person (1.46), internet connectivity (82.1%), and urban population (100%).
- The state-run Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF) aims to help small high-tech companies in Singapore grow through co-investments by the Singapore government and local private-sector players – Jungle Ventures, Tembusu Partners, Monk's Hill, and Walden International.
- To illustrate, Alipay and Citi Ventures were part of the M-Daq USD $104 million fundraising, which was the largest FinTech deal in the country; GMO Venture Partners co-invested with financial service firm Credit Saison in MatchMove Wallet's 30-million-dollar transaction, which was also one of the largest FinTech funding rounds.
- *PayPal provides a nine-month program with a co-working space at PayPal's Singapore Technology Center in Suntec City; learning, coaching & mentorship by PayPal executives and external business/technical subject matter experts; access to PayPal talent from within and outside the firm; funding access through PayPal network; VCs connections; and a favorable environment to work in.
- Under the Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS), Wavemaker enjoys a 5.6x leverage on its investment capital with the NRF providing up to S$500,000 per startup on top of the S$89,000 that WaveMaker invests per company.
- SPH Plug and Play : This is a media and technology-themed accelerator program which brings SPH's vast media expertise and resources; IIPL's network of industry stakeholders including government-linked agencies and research institutes, and Plug and Play's experience in running multiple themed-accelerators globally.