SPRING SEEDS Capital seeks partners in S$100m fund to groom startups in advanced technology

SPRING SEEDS Capital (SSC), the investment arm of SPRING Singapore, has committed up to S$100 million to groom "high potential" startups and is seeking partners to co-invest in Singapore-based deep technology startups.

SPRING said on Friday that these deep tech startups will involve those in advanced manufacturing and engineering (AME), health and biomedical sciences (HBMS), and urban solutions and sustainability (USS) - areas identified under Singapore's research, innovation and enterprise 2020 (RIE2020) plan.

"Deep technology startups" refers to those whose business models are built critically around proprietary technologies, research or hardware, and require significant developmental efforts before their products are marketable.

The amount set aside by SSC will be matched by private capital raised by these partners.

"The sectors identified have high potential for growth and offer many opportunities or startups. They also generate significant economic and social impact, such as productivity improvement through the use of innovative and disruptive technologies,'' SPRING said in a release.

The call-for-partners (CFP) is an initiative under Startup SG Equity. To stimulate more private-sector investments in deep tech areas, SPRING has enhanced funding support under the scheme by increasing the funding ratio of government co-investment for early-stage startups and existing investment caps for promising startups in deep tech sectors.

SPRING provides a co-matching of 7:3 (up from 1:1 previously) for the first S$500,000 of co-investment amount, and, for matching partners, up to S$4 million per deep tech startup.

The CFP is open to local and foreign parties with operations based in Singapore.