23/11/2018 – SGinnovate, a government-owned innovation platform, has made yet another investment in three deep-tech startups as part of its continuous efforts to support the ecosystem in the city-state.
The announcement was made on the second anniversary of SGInnovate’s founding and one year after initiating its Deep Tech Nexus Strategy. The three deep tech startups invested are:
1. Horizon Quantum Computing
Founded in January 2018, Horizon Quantum Computing is an early stage startup focused on building software development tools that enable software engineers to build quantum-enhanced applications without the need for prior quantum computing experience.
2. Involt
Looking to build a low-carbon future, Involt is working on ultracapacitors as the backbone of a new breed of safer and cost-effective battery technology. SGInnovate’s investment is intended to help the startup expedite the development of its storage technology, which it hopes will increase green technology uptake.
3. Portcast
Through the use of proprietary machine learning and real-time trade data, Portcast employs predictive analytics to build digital solutions for the logistics industry. The startup aims to help logistics companies better predict global cargo flows to price dynamically and utilise their assets more efficiently.
“SGInnovate believes it can best develop Singapore’s deep tech ecosystem by helping technical founders build investible deep tech startups,” explained Steve Leonard, the Founding CEO of SGInnovate.
Besides, Leonard also added that the organization would be creating apprenticeship opportunities for students.
It will form collaborations with four major local universities, which are Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore Management University (SMU), and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
These four universities will be collaborating on capabilities-building opportunities with SGInnovate’s enhanced Summation Programme, which is the city state’s first deep tech apprenticeship programme.
“Two years of close collaboration with hundreds of scientists, engineers, investors, and academics has strengthened our belief that Singapore can be a deep-tech startup hub. Guided by our Deep Tech Nexus Strategy, the announcements we have made today represent new actions around investment capital and human capital. Both of these are the critical ingredients needed to build great deep tech startups here,” said Leonard.
Since its launch, SGInnovate has invested in 45 deep tech startups, grown a 23,000 strong community focused on deep tech, and holds about 100 events a year. The organization has also managed to build a network of over 50 local and international partners to grow the ecosystem.
The last investment SGInnovate announced was two months ago, similarly, in three startups which are Tricog Health, a deep tech AI startup in healthcare, ThinCI Inc that builds energy-efficient computing platforms supporting AI applications, and Quantiply that uses AI to automate and speed up anti-money laundering efforts.
In September, SGInnovate launched Singapore’s first certified blockchain developer programme targeting working professionals.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat spoke at the ceremony, saying “We are on the right path, but there is always more that we can do. I look forward to seeing many more startups in Singapore succeed and create a positive momentum for our efforts ahead.”
The Singapore government has been active in developing the deep-tech ecosystem and some of its initiatives include the National University of Singapore committing US$18.18 million to launch 250 deep-tech startups in the next five years.
