Singapore firms receive $13.4b in investments
Despite the slowing economy, funds invested in companies here rose by more than one-third in the first nine months of this year.
In all, about $13.4 billion from 437 deals was poured into the companies, a 36 per cent increase over the same period last year, Enterprise Singapore said yesterday.
The bulk of the funds was invested in start-ups operating in the digital tech industry, accounting for 93.2 per cent of the total funds raised.
The investments were made across 278 deals, almost double the 145 deals struck in the same period last year.
Investments in deep-tech companies operating in three industries went up by 25 per cent to about $416.4 million between January and September this year.
The trio are advanced manufacturing, urban solutions and sustainability, plus healthcare and biomedical sciences.
LACK OF LEAD INVESTORS
But the funds raised in these three industries made up less than 4 per cent of total capital invested, in part due to the current ecosystem's lack of lead investors with the expertise and experience to back deep-tech companies, Enterprise Singapore said.
Its assistant chief executive officer for innovation and enterprise, Mr Edwin Chow, said that more deep-tech companies are expected to be formed and they will require more early-stage venture funding to succeed.
Enterprise Singapore said regional and global funds have been raising bigger sums this year, and it foresees the trend continuing as the opportunities in South-east Asia grow with the rise of the Internet economy.
Mr Chow said: "As we develop Singapore into a Global-Asia node for tech, innovation and enterprise, we need to build on the momentum to capture and catalyse more venture activities here."
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