Special fund for startups has facilitated S$216m in funds raised

THE investment arms of the Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore have announced that they have facilitated the raising of S$216 million by 25 Singapore startups through the Special Situation Fund for Startups (SSFS).

More than half the total funds raised came from private investors, say EDBI and SEEDS Capital, respectively the investment arms of the Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore.

The S$285 million SSFS was introduced in June last year to catalyse investments into high-potential startups facing cash-flow or fund-raising difficulties due to the pandemic.

Under the scheme, EDBI and SEEDS Capital co-invest with private-sector investors on a 1:1 basis.

The 25 startups span sectors such as e-commerce, edtech, enterprise technology, fintech, healthcare and tourism. They account for over 1,200 jobs, including roles related to software engineering, product development and data science.

Private investors that co-invested with EDBI and SEEDS Capital include global and regional venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

EDBI has been focusing on late-stage startups such as Taiger, which provides enterprises, including global banks, with artificial intelligence (AI) tools to automate complex tasks, and ImmunoScape, which is tackling challenges in immunotherapy.

SEEDS Capital has supported early-stage startups such as AI-driven recruitment platform impress.ai and payments startup CardUp.

The SSFS scheme will end when the funds are fully committed or by Oct 31.

READ MORE: S$285m support for startups: Will vetting be stringent enough?