On 9 July 2018, Enterprise Singapore and the
German government-backed German Accelerator Southeast Asia
(GASEA) announced
a two-way partnership to support Singapore start-ups’ entry into Germany, and
facilitate German start-ups’ setup in Singapore. The collaboration will involve
various accelerator programmes for curated start-ups and follows the signing of
a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by Enterprise Singapore and German
Accelerator at the Germany-Singapore Business Forum in April 2018.
Enterprise Singapore will appoint start-up
multipliers, like Startup SG and EntrePass, to ensure that start-ups in
Singapore have access to a wide range of proficient global talent to support
their tech innovations. Enterprise Singapore will prioritise the appraisals of EntrePass for the promising start-up
talent incubated by such partners.
The aforementioned moves were announced at
the launch of the GASEA office on 9 July and mark German Accelerator’s first
office in Asia. Enterprise Singapore Chairman, Mr. Peter Ong; Ambassador of the
Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Singapore, Dr. Ulrich Sante; and
over 100 businesses, start-ups, VCs and educational institutes attended the
launch.
Mr. Peter Ong
stated that to maintain its competitive edge, Singapore’s start-ups need to be
connected to global innovation hubs and construct a robust and efficient talent
pool. Enterprise Singapore will continue to partner with companies like the
German Accelerator to boost Singapore’s start-up ecosystem. This will be done by facilitating co-innovation efforts and
helping start-ups identify business partners in key hubs like Germany.
Boosting market access and partnerships in deep tech innovation
GASEA, with the support of Enterprise Singapore, will develop landing
pads for Singapore start-ups. A two-phase
programme, spanning up to nine months, will also be initiated to support
Singapore’s deep tech start-ups.
The first phase
will cover preliminary tech evaluation and product-market fit
assessments. Start-ups will move to the second phase once they have been deemed suitable for the market. They will
be housed in co-working spaces within the market and will be connected to local
mentors and suitable German Mittelstand (medium-sized companies) to discuss
possible collaborations.
Germany has a stellar track record in manufacturing
and environmental technology. It is also the world’s third-largest goods exporter; machinery and automobiles being among
its top exports. Singapore start-ups can partner with German Mittelstand in
these areas to co-innovate solutions and use Germany as a reference market to
enter Europe. The nimbleness of Mittelstand companies will afford them more
flexibility to adopt new and innovative solutions.
Partnering
Singapore to access Asia
The GASEA
office in Singapore will help German start-ups enter into Singapore and Asia
through a five-month programme, customised
for each start-up according to their industry needs. Eight German start-ups
have been brought to Singapore: Ecosus (agritech),
Fractal Blockchain (regtech), iNDTact (high-performance
sensor technology), Rytle (logtech), Start-up Guide (publishing), Silexica (deep tech), tiramizoo (logtech) and Wealthstone (fintech).
Enterprise Singapore will connect them to
Singapore companies and MNCs to co-create and testbed solutions that can be
applied here, and subsequently, to Asia.
Mr Claus Karthe, Founder, and CEO of German Accelerator Southeast Asia stated
that Southeast Asia’s large, youthful and digitally savvy middle-class presents
a tremendous opportunity. And, as Southeast Asian governments encourage innovation,
mobile capabilities and digitisation, the
ecosystems comprising research institutes, government agencies and industries
are open to cooperation and supporting foreign start-ups.
Calling
for proposals to deepen collaboration on co-innovation projects
To further propel the collaboration between
start-ups and SMEs from both Singapore and Germany, a second call for proposals launches on 1 August 2018 as part of
the Germany-Singapore SME Funding programme.
Through this initiative, Enterprise
Singapore hopes to support more co-innovation projects that tap complementary
technologies and capabilities for the development of solutions for both Asian and European markets.