Singapore’s tech startup scene has grown in recent years, with the city-state ranking 7th in the latest Global Innovation Index 2022.
Ole Huiyin | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Global Venture Capital May Decline in 2022but Singapore’s government-owned technology investment firm is optimistic about 2023.
“2023 is probably going to be a pretty good year for venture capital in Singapore,” Hsien-Hui Tong, executive director of investment at SGInnovate, told CNBC.squawk box asia” Wednesday.
Unlike the more common global market, Singapore’s venture capital scene is “still very active,” said Tong. This is because domestic companies tend to be in the early stages of development and “at the seed and series A stages there is still a lot of liquidity. There is a lot of capital there,” he added. rice field.
Global markets, on the other hand, tend to be in the “more mature” stages of series B and C, with venture capital “a bit depleted.”
A seed funding round, also known as initial investment, is followed by various rounds called Series A, B, C, etc.
Venture funding in the first nine months of 2022 totaled $369 billion, down 25% year-on-year, according to the company. crunch base.
“2022 was a good year for us, quite unlike any other investment category. It was a good year for emerging tech startups with many breakthroughs,” Tong said.
For example, Singapore-based biotech company MiRXES last month launched the “T10 ultra-high-throughput sequencing platform” in the Asia-Pacific region.
And SunGreenH2, a cleantech company that raised $2 million in funding led by SGInnovate in August, is testing electrolyser manufacturers and their materials around the world.
Tong added that Singapore is “shielded from many impacts” of global macroeconomic headwinds. As a result, Singapore could “perhaps improve its infrastructure a bit.”
He also named energy as a sector to watch in 2023 in light of breakthroughs in nuclear fusion and hydrogen.
“Quantum technology is another area that I think has some important announcements and breakthroughs,” he added.
Correction: This report has been updated to accurately reflect global venture funds for the first nine months of 2022. In previous versions, the numbers were listed incorrectly.
