Southeast Asia has long marked itself on the world map for its burgeoning tech startup ecosystem. The region — comprising Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and several smaller countries — witnessed spectacular growth in terms of startups in the past decade.
Young demography, growing internet penetration, burgeoning middle class, favourable regulatory environments and startup-friendly policies have worked in its favour. These factors helped it attract foreign talents and venture capital despite challenges like cultural diversity, market fragmentation, and infrastructural gaps.
According to Forbes, Southeast Asia holds massive growth potential, with the valuation of tech startups in the region predicted to reach a whopping US$1 trillion by 2025 from the current US$340 billion.
Singapore, a bright spot
Despite being a relatively smaller market in Southeast Asia, Singapore remains the most attractive destination for startups and VCs. Singapore is home to nearly 4,800 tech startups, 252 incubators and accelerators, 529 investors, and 700 family offices.
As per the Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) 2023, in the world startup ranking, the city-state moved an impressive ten places to #8 from #18 in the GSER 2022 and is the second-highest ranked Asian ecosystem after Beijing.
Singapore is also home to celebrated unicorns such as Grab and Sea Group. In addition, 80 of the world’s top 100 technology firms have business operations on the island. A growing talent pool, advanced IT infrastructure, progressive immigration policies, solid government support, and an efficient public transport system make it a hot spot for domestic and international startups.
Singapore’s close trade ties with India
Singapore has long been a favourite destination for Indian startups. Over the past decade, many Indian companies have either registered their companies in or moved their headquarters to Singapore, given the ease of registration, low-cost incorporation process, favourable tax policies, access to a burgeoning region and business-friendly environment.
Indeed, Singapore and India have enjoyed close ties for decades, and their relationships have a history of intense cultural and commercial links.
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The island nation is one of India’s biggest trade and investment partners in ASEAN. In 2021-22, Singapore accounted for 27.3 per cent of India’s overall trade with the bloc.
Singapore is also one of India’s vital sources of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment); the total investment into India from the wealthy republic was almost US$136.7 billion (23 per cent of the total FDI inflows) in the past two decades.
In the past four-five years, the two countries strengthened their ties in science & technology, innovation, and startups. In 2018, the India-Singapore Entrepreneurship Bridge was launched to enable aspiring entrepreneurs, startups, incubators, and investors from both countries to connect with each other.
Early this year, Singapore and India inked a partnership to integrate their respective real-time retail payment systems — Unified Payments Interface (India) and PayNow (Singapore) — to make cross-border remittances easier and more convenient for the citizens of both.
These new partnerships are expected to accelerate the ties between the two countries.
Tapping into the HNI Network
As Asia’s most prominent wealth management centre, Singapore has attracted ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIs) worldwide over the past several years. Its UHNI population grew nearly 9 per cent to 4,206 in 2021 from 3,874 in 2020, and it is expected to rise by almost 300 per cent by 2026, as per a Knight Frank study.
These HNIs are looking for new opportunities to invest their capital, and startups from emerging markets like India could be a potential option. Indian startups can look to tap UHNIs in the island nation for potential investments.
Bringing together communities from these countries is one way to keep the dialogue moving. TiE Singapore (The Indus Entrepreneurs) is hosting a summit to discuss investment opportunities, among other things.
The TiE Global Summit 2023 will gather entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors, and thought leaders from around the globe. In addition, the event will provide a platform for showcasing groundbreaking ideas, shaping the future of entrepreneurship, and fostering meaningful connections across the public and private sectors.
TiE Global Summit (TGS), in its eighth edition, will be held from November 15-17 in Singapore in partnership with the Singapore Fintech Festival 2023.
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