YCH's SCAngels, SGInnovate give Singapore deep tech startups a leg-up

SUPPLY Chain Angels (SCAngels), the corporate venture arm of YCH Group, on Wednesday announced its partnership with SGInnovate to bolster Singapore's deep tech startup scene.

Under the Startup SG Equity scheme, SCAngels will set aside an initial investment of S$10 million to bankroll early stage startups focusing on technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT).

In tandem with Singapore's Research, Innovation & Enterprise 2020 Plan (RIE2020), the partnership will "identify and co-invest in innovative Singapore-based deep tech startups with intellectual property and global market potential in the Services and Digital Economy domain", SCAngels and YCH said in a joint release. SCAngels will be responsible for leading investment negotiations with startups appointed through a stringent selection process, they said.

SGInnovate's founding CEO Steve Leonard said: "Deep technology startups typically have a longer roadmap for development and commercialisation, and this may discourage some private sector VCs (venture capitalists) whose LPs (limited partners) expect shorter-term returns."

With the inclusion of SCAngels, Mr Leonard added that they now have on board several VCs who have committed to be active investors in Singapore's deep tech startups, and that they look forward to working with the VCs.

This collaboration is also timely as Singapore will be taking over the Asean chairmanship in 2018, with a focus on developing the digital economy and cross-border e-commerce.

Said partner at SC Angels, James Ong: "With this partnership and leveraging YCH Group's network, resources and facilities such as in Supply Chain City, we are confident that we are able to help deep technology companies which are highly differentiated and hard to replicate, scale faster and wider across geographies."

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