Singapore's startup funding stands strong amidst pandemic

The tech startup ecosystem has become the country’s fastest growing segment.

Technology startups in Singapore have registered  strong growth in funding fin 2017 and 2018 to become the country’s fastest growing segment, reports PwC.

Singapore’s start-up funding jumped to a record $10.1b (US$7.3b) in 2018, and amore muted $6.5b (US$4.75b) in 2019.

The current year also proves to be resilient, for despite the pandemic, the first half of 2020 saw tech start-ups raise $3.3b (US$2.4b).

With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fundraising ecosystem, there are significant opportunities in Singapore, with solid and innovative startups for investors to consider such as in sectors like health & biotech, fintech, agri-food tech and artificial intelligence, notes PwC.

The pandemic in particular will likely accelerate or increase interest in the health and biotech sectors, which have seen exceptional performance in H1 with $342m (US$250m), already surpassing 2019 figures at $230m (US$168m). This is expected to continue with growing interest in solutions such as telemedicine, home-care and biodegradable plastics.

With Singapore’s status as an ASEAN financial hub, fintech continues to be the center of the startup ecosystem, with investments in the sector almost doubling between $377m (US$275m) in 2017 and $686m (US$501m) in 2019. The growth is largely driven by fintech firms in payments, insurtech and credit.

In 2017, the bulk of tech startup funding was invested during the seed stage, and has seen growth in funding across later stages. In H1, the Series A funding has already reached $586m (US$428m), close to 70% of 2019.

Funding stages beyond the series also saw tremendous growth, with over 45% to 55% per year in Series B and C between 2017 and 2019, signifying a strong foundation on the developing ecosystem. However, Series B and C funding for H1 stood at $634m (US$463m) indicating reduced focus across these stages of funding amidst COVID-19.