Keeping up with Asia’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems is challenging because the region’s DeepTech, Venture Capital and Start-up ecosystems are incredibly complex and diverse. Today, we are going to try to break it down by focusing on the ecosystems in just one country - Singapore. 

We are going to discuss three key topics. First, we’ll look at DeepTech to discover the latest trends and to understand what unique challenges start-ups in this space face. 

Second, we’ll look at the state of Venture Capital in Singapore, and, more specifically, is there enough VC funds available to support the longer commercialisation cycles of DeepTech Startups. 

Finally, we’ll discuss how the start-up ecosystem is evolving and find out what cool new innovations are on the horizon. 

To do this, we are joined by David Toh, the Interim CEO of NTUitive, which is the innovation and enterprise subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which is ranked Number 12 in the latest World University Rankings.  

Show Notes:

01:00 Intro to NTUitive, including how it supports start-ups and engages with the technology innovation ecosystem. 

06:00 How does NTU look at DeepTech? And some examples of DeepTech solutions coming out of NTU. 

13:30 What unique challenges do DeepTech start-ups face? And due to their longer commercialisation cycle, how do they set near-term success metrics?

19:30 Where has NTUitive been successful, and where is there room for improvement?

21:30 David’s journey from semicon engineer to equity analyst to fund manager to the world of Venture Capital. 

27:45 Some of the start-ups David has helped on their start-up journey

29:45 What’s the current state of Singapore’s start-up and venture capital ecosystems?

37:45 What characteristics does David look for in start-ups - and are there any red flags that would prevent him engaging with a start-up. 

43:45 Let’s look five to ten years in the future, and DeepTech has been incredibly successful in Singapore. How did the ecosystem evolve to enable that success?

Alternatively, let’s say that DeepTech bombs. What mistakes did the ecosystem make?

48:30 What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about creating a start-up? Or someone who wants to go into Venture Capital?