Professor Dr. Wong Poh Kam here provides an overview of role of Venture Capital and Angel Investors in tech-startups scene in Singapore. It has been republished here with permission. A more detailed version of this will be published in the Annual SVCA Directory 2011/12
High-technology entrepreneurship has been identified as an important driver of Singapore’s knowledge-based economy, and increased policy attention has been given to encouraging the formation and nurturing of high-tech start-ups, especially those with significant intellectual property (IP). To this end, in 2010 the National Research Foundation (NRF) engaged me, as director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, to conduct a study of high-tech start-ups in Singapore. While the survey covers many aspects of the high tech start-up dynamics, including characteristics of the founders, their sources of technology and funding, growth strategies, performance and challenges, this blog highlights some salient findings on only one aspect of the survey: the performance of start-ups that have received funding from venture capitalists or angel investors versus those that did not. Read more
Skype is nice, but you’re screwed if don’t have access to a wifi network and don’t want to pay hefty roaming charges. That’s a predicament many business travelers face when they’re out and about — say, heading to a site visit in India or a networking event in Vietnam.
Sure, the world is getting increasingly wired and a wifi Internet connection is becoming as common and taken-for-granted as water, but such luxuries aren’t always readily available in most countries. Read more
Filed under Featured, Innovation & Technology, Mobile, TechnologyTags: flexiroam, Malaysia, Malaysia Entrepreneurs, malaysia entrepreneurship, malaysian entrepreneur, malaysian entrepreneurs, mobile roaming, roaming charges
ASEANpreneurs Youth Leader Exchange (AYLE) was held in Singapore on 2008 and it will happen again on February 2012. AYLE is a weeklong program that brings together a motivated and variegated populace from ASEAN member states and encourages a focused collaborative learning in the space of entrepreneurship. There will be various panel discussions with leading entrepreneurs of the country (speakers list), workshops (full details), company visits (list of companies), cultural exchange (details), and fun-filled entrepreneurial activities.
Event Details
When: Tuesday to Sunday, 14th-19th February (Program details)
Download the registration form.
Recently, comScore, a leader in digital business analytics, has released a report documenting the key social media trends for 2011. What is clear is that social networking sites have become one of the main channels for businesses to engage existing customers and win over new ones. So, it’s important that entrepreneurs keep abreast about the current state of social networking, adopt their online strategies to suit the current environment, and anticipate future trends.
Here are several key points summarized from the full report.
1) Social networking has emerged globally as the activity which Internet users spend the most time on.
Social networking sites are reaching 82 percent of the global Internet population, or 1.2 billion users. The activity now accounts for 19 percent of time spent online, making it the most popular activity on the Internet. That’s a huge jump from a mere six percent in 2007. Social networking is followed closely behind by search/navigation, retail, and communication. Read more
The Internet is vast and thriving with activity. These infographics give you an idea of its scale — did you know that more than 695,000 Facebook status updates and 694,445 Google search queries are made every minute?
Images: GO-Gulf.com web design company
Updated: 18th April 2012
If you don’t know Rocket Internet, you should. This German startup incubator, founded by the famous Samwer Brothers, has a knack for copying business models from Silicon Valley and replicating them successfully elsewhere.
Now, they are conquering Southeast Asia.
SGE got wind from Raphael Strauch, managing director of Rocket Internet, that they have started Zalora.com, a Zappos clone, in Malaysia and Singapore. Zalora is an online fashion retailer that stocks clothing and accesories from indie brands around the region.
Featured brands include TAS Iman by Tom Abang Saufi, a well-known Malaysian fashion designer, Ladakh, an Australian label, and SABRINAGOH.
Besides an online fashion business spanning the region, a check with various online recruitment sites has revealed that Rocket Internet is also embarking on an online food delivery venture and a furniture business called Home24.sg. Raphael declined to reveal more details at the point of time.
What we do know is that the company has embarked on a massive recruitment drive in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, with the aim of taking Southeast Asia’s online retail market by storm, as their job ads put it.
Based on what we’ve seen, the company is in the midst of creating multiple localized e-commerce websites utilizing a common logistical and operational backbone, each focusing on different verticals. Read more
Long ago on television, a certain Captain Planet rescued our planet by defeating eco-terrorists with his superpowers. In real life, saving the earth requires much more patience.
For Singapore entrepreneur Alan Yeap, he’s doing it by painstakingly building a company from the ground up and making it profitable. He started New Quantum Holdings in 2010, which is in the business of — among other things — developing and selling oxo-degradable and biodegradable plastic bags.
Alan doesn’t have the flamboyance of Captain Planet or environmental activist Al Gore. Quite the opposite. He’s mild-mannered and soft-spoken, but calm and self-confident. He knows plastics well — prior to starting the company, he was in the plastic trading and distribution business in an MNC for 20 years. Read more
Mobile Money Asia Pacific will be held in Singapore on January 2012. It is an opportunity to learn about mobile money opportunities in developed and emerging countries across Asia Pacific. Two Mobile Money Conference Workshops will be held: Pre and Post. Also check out conference details for Day 1 and Day 2 as well as the list of keynote speakers.
Event Details
When: Monday to Thursday, 30th January-2nd February 2012
Where: Swissotel, 2 Stamford Road, Singapore 178882 (Map)
Fee: US$2299-2699 (S$2973-3875)
Register here.
Dark Dot, a Singapore-developed top-down shooter that offers a refreshing take on the genre, has achieved success.
Downloaded over 448,000 times, the app became the top action game in 48 countries, including China, US, and Singapore, and also the top free app in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, reported TODAY.
All this in just three months after its launch in October.
The game is a product of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, a program supported by the National Research Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA). Read more
Filed under Innovation & Technology, Mobile, News, TechnologyTags: GAMBIT, ipad app, ipad games, MDA, Mobile Games, NRF, singapore games, singapore-mit gambit game lab
Fearless is a word often used to describe Karen Kerrigan, a think tank member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Deciding that entrepreneurs weren’t getting the attention they deserved from government bodies, she founded the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE) in the US, ruffling more than a few establishment feathers in the process.
Started in 1994, the SBE is a research and advocacy organization dedicated to help small business owners and promote entrepreneurship.
Today, the think tank has more than 70,000 members and she is one of the most influential voices in Congress, having led several key initiatives to improve business conditions for entrepreneurs and foster US and global entrepreneurship. Read more
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