Singapore has a thriving startup ecosystem. It stands 18th on the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking created by the world-leading innovation policy advisory and research firm Startup Genome.
The Singapore startup scene has a valuation of USD 22.5 billion, whereas emerging businesses worldwide are worth USD 3.8 trillion.
However, there are still gaps and challenges businesses face in the city-state and one of the most common challenges is the woes of corporate financing.
Challenges for incorporating a business in Singapore
Singapore-based college application platform Cialfo is among promising edtech players in the region. Cialfo is not only an award-winning, fast-growing edtech company but also a digital transformation leader that is making higher education accessible by delivering 360 support to students worldwide.
On the other hand, Endowus is Singapore’s leading digital wealth advisor, and the first that allows people to invest across all sources of wealth including CPF in a single platform. To date, they have returned more than S$2 million in trailer fees back to their clients.
Yet another startup, Singapore-based Konsyg, is a global provider of end-to-end sales services. With a rich client portfolio in Singapore and beyond, they claim to provide 70% more effective revenue and lead generation than internal sales functions and are among the emerging companies in this sector.
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These emerging leaders in respective sectors have had one thing in common in their journey- the challenges and costs that they have faced when it came to corporate financing.
“As a rapidly growing startup expanding its operations across 4 countries, regulatory, tax and legal compliance became a significant challenge as we venture into uncharted territories. Scaling quickly also means that we often do not have a reserve of internal capabilities and resources to manage a recurrent surge in business activities,” shares Evalyn Tan, Finance Director at Cialfo.
We’ve faced our share of startup related challenges! So, we started from scratch in 2017 in one of our cofounder’s basements with the idea of solving retirement, and we were bootstrapped all the way through till 2021 when we first raised external money. Accounting, corporate secretarial, tax and payroll needs were the main area where we needed help,” says Dominic Ong, the Chief Financial Officer at Endowus.
“From the very beginning, we were well aware that we don’t have an understanding of back-office-related matters, including process, taxation, and overseas operational setups. Plus, in the sales world, mitigating expectations is the biggest “woe”. Companies tend to want overnight revenue, which makes setting expectations always a challenge. The misconception is that a lack of overnight results is a flaw in the sales process when in reality companies should be looking more into pipeline development in order to judge the quality of the sales function. So, we needed the team to focus solely on managing client expectations and helping them achieve their goals through our services. So, we badly needed a reliable partner for matters like bookkeeping, taxation and financial management,” shares William Gilchrist, Founder and CEO of Konsyg
These challenges are faced by many young and small businesses in the city-state. In fact, many businesses in Singapore fail due to poor bookkeeping and inefficient finance management. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of options out there- large corporate servicing firms focus on volume while small-scale firms have limited resources and generally do not have automated processes, which slows down things considerably.
In fact, Singapore has a relatively easier and quicker process of business registration, which attracts investors from worldwide. However, Singaporean businesses are registered only if they meet strict eligibility criteria, follow the established registration procedure, and are issued with a certificate of incorporation by the registrar of business. Deviating from these rules is not acceptable and authorities follow them strictly.
Plus, Singapore authorities strictly follow businesses’ tax compliance and apply harsh sanctions to non-compliant businesses without exceptions. While the perk is that corporate income tax is only at 17 per cent but for small and young businesses, with little to no knowledge of the compliance guidelines, it can be tricky to focus on these things.
PikoHANA: Empowering small and young businesses in Singapore and beyond
This is where PikoHANA, a mid-level corporate servicing team that focuses on accuracy, automation, and systems, is stepping up and helping fill in the gaps. PikoHANA helps SMEs scale by digitising their back-office and operational reporting, giving them access to information and data that allows them to make key operational and strategic decisions on a more informed basis.
Dominic from Endowus shares, “They (PikoHANA) were the ones that helped us to incorporate in 2017! PikoHANA took care of our accounting, corporate secretarial, tax and payroll needs, enabling us to focus our attention on achieving product/market fit – and we are now the leading digital wealth platform in Singapore!”
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“In Q1 2022, we received our license in Hong Kong, our first overseas market, and we asked PikoHANA to manage our accounting and payroll needs for that as well. It simplifies our life to have one partner supporting us for both markets,” he adds.
Evalyn from Cialfo shares, “We have partnered with PikoHANA to manage various business processes as well as corporate reporting and compliance. PikoHANA spearheaded the establishment of our company’s accounting and finance best practices. With a team of dedicated professionals who had an in-depth understanding of our business, PikoHANA empowered us with the ability to respond quickly to new business demands. This enabled us to focus on executing strategies and scale with peace of mind.”
William from Konsyg shares, “PikoHANA has been with us since our founding. PikoHANA has allowed Konsyg to focus 100% on our core skill set. We have been able to exist in complete peace, being able to trust that PikoHANA “has our back”.
William adds that PikoHANA has helped him and his team get a better understanding of how the company runs from a back-office perspective. “PikoHANA is leading the charge in ensuring our staffing matters in terms of payroll, filings, and structural matters are met in real-time. I couldn’t imagine running this company without PikoHANA there, it would be nearly impossible,” he says.
PikoHANA’s fractional finance model covers more than just taxes and corporate returns. Their model encompasses anything connected to finance from CFO advisory, bookkeeping, accounts keeping, payroll, invoicing, vendor payments, etc. — essentially anything an in-house finance team does without taking care of both managing and training. The company’s differentiator is that they do all the low-value work for a reasonable price and on the side, they give good guidance and advice to help businesses grow and scale.
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“One of our goals is to be the leading college and career guidance platform in Southeast Asia, India and China. With PikoHANA’s support, we were able to replicate and roll out best practices at scale in each of these regions, thereby giving a positive experience and leaving a striking impression on our clients and associates,” says Evalyn from Cialfo.
With a core focus on SMEs with less than 50 employees, PikoHANA puts together a dedicated team for each client where there’s an assigned account manager with a response time of under 30 minutes (email, phone or zoom) and as many experts as needed, enabling startups to scale and expand easily.
If you are looking for a concierge, hands-on fractional finance team to support your growth and help with incorporating your business in Singapore, visit PikoHANA to learn more. PikoHANA also offers incorporation services in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as fractional finance services for companies incorporated elsewhere.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by PikoHANA
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