Govt grants seen crowding out angel investors

[SINGAPORE] While entrepreneurs have welcomed the growing pool of government grants for start-ups, some angel investors here say that they are feeling "crowded out" from the scene.

At the 21st Singapore Economic Roundtable jointly organised by the Institute of Policy Studies and The Business Times, angel investor Tan Chin Hwee said that the government, through its generous financial support for start-ups, has unwittingly made it harder for private investors to get in on the action.

"On the ground, (the government) is sometimes crowding out the private investors . . . Quite a few (start-ups) hide within research labs, and never really go out into the real world to meet people like us, to raise the money that is required," said Mr Tan, a veteran investor behind a number of start-ups in Silicon Valley, Israel, and South Korea.