goon2019
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Singapore’s early-stage fund highlights four of tech’s most promising avenues
Artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, medical technologies and quantum computing are areas of focus for Singapore’s early stage, state-funded investor.
While those technologies are still in their nascent stages, they are becoming more interconnected and, as a result, having a cross-disciplinary understanding of them is fundamental for investors, according to Tong Hsien-Hui, head of venture investing at SGInnovate.Acr welding robots
“We like technologies that are inevitable,” Tong told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday, adding that investments in the so-called deep-tech space are an investment in the future.
“No one jumps into deep tech and says, ‘Hey, the technology is for here and now.’ Everyone jumps in and says, ‘I believe that this technology will be relevant and important five years from now’,” Tong said.
SGInnovate is funded wholly by the Singapore government but Tong declined to disclose the fund size. Its mandate is to invest in early-stage local, and some international, deep-tech start-ups. Unlike Temasek Holdings, which is the city-state’s investment arm, the checks that Tong and his team write are relatively small — on average, deals are worth between $350,000 and $1.5 million.
“That would be, basically, our comfort zone. We can do more, we can do less, depending on what the opportunity is,” he said.Artificial intelligence is becoming more important not just to Singapore, which has undergone rapid digitization in recent years, but to the entire Southeast Asia region, according to Tong.
Seeing AI’s potential value, investors around the world have been opening their checkbooks to start-ups. Venture capital funding of AI-related companies jumped 72% globally and hit a record $9.3 billion in 2018, a report from PwC and CB Insights said earlier this year.
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