Corporate-startup programmes should focus on the startups, not the corporates

THIS week, ST Engineering launched Innosparks - an incubator for healthcare, workplace safety and security startups - in an event officiated by Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran. The Singapore-listed engineering group said that it would commit up to S$500,000 to each startup to get their idea to market within 18 months.

With Innosparks, ST Engineering joins a growing crowd of large corporates that have in recent years launched corporate accelerators and incubators, or carved out corporate venture capital funds, to nurture startups that can boost in-house innovation or even disrupt their industry.

As further proof of the corporate-startup trend, Shell last week unveiled its Singapore-based corporate accelerator, Shell #IdeaRefinery, while GIC partnered global entrepreneurship network, Startup Weekend, to hold one of South-east Asia's largest hackathons in Singapore.