We’ve heard a lot from Singapore government that technology is the next wave for the country. Inevitably, government is pushing Singapore to be the “Next Silicon Valley” in Southeast Asia. Companies and investors from all around the world seems to buy into Singapore’s idea and start to pour in resources and fund into this tiny red dot. Below is highlights of what’s happening in the past 1 week:
ServiceNow Ventures – CreatorCon Challenge
ServiceNow (stock quote: NYSE: NOW) formalized ServiceNow Ventures, investment arm of the company that helps early stage companies in developing application based on ServiceNow’s platform. Growth-stage company with market-proven products can partner with ServiceNow Ventures co-develop Go-to-market initiatives.
To get Ventures off to a flying start, ServiceNow is hosting the CreatorCon Challenge, in which winnning startup will receive an investment of $500,000 from ServiceNow Ventures in the form of a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) agreement. A SAFE is an instrument where the invested capital from ServiceNow Ventures will convert into equity upon raising a future institutional round of capital.
Telstra Ventures Invests in Singapore’s Fintech company
Telstra Ventures today announced a strategic investment as part of leading a Series-B funding round in Singapore’s C88 Financial Technologies Pte Ltd, which owns and operates the largest consumer financial websites in Indonesia and the Philippines.
C88 also co-operates Premiro.com in Indonesia, a licensed insurance e-brokerage services provider to consumers and small to medium enterprises.
This is the fourth ventures investment in Asia by Telstra Ventures over the past 12 months, strengthening Telstra’s presence in a region that is increasingly a source of world class digital innovation. The investment in C88 also creates opportunities for collaboration based on the enterprise services Telstra provides to financial institutions across the Asia-Pacific region and through Telstra’s joint venture in Indonesia, telkomtelstra
Applied Materials Hosts Inaugural Ventures Day in Singapore
Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., hosts its Ventures Day for the first time in Singapore. With growing interest in deep technology startups – companies that build their businesses around hardware that provides unique and hard to replicate technological solutions, the event aims to accelerate innovation by providing a platform for technology startups from Singapore and Southeast Asia to pitch their business for potential investment and collaboration opportunities.
Bringing together leading players from Singapore’s startup ecosystem, Ventures Day features entrepreneurship clinics and expert panel discussions with speakers from across the public and private sectors. With Singapore transforming into an entrepreneurial hub, topics of discussion will include opportunities for growing the deep technology startup space, why investments in this area will be key to driving the next wave of industry growth, and the value of public-private partnerships.
Through an open submission process that received almost 30 applications, a total of ten local hardware startups offering differentiated solutions were invited to pitch their business at Ventures Day, including Attonics Systems, OneBiomed and Nodis.