Singapore is an island city state with a population of over 5.5 million. The authorities are already able to control vehicle ownership through vehicle licensing (car ownership requires a ‘certificate of entitlement’) and road pricing – and the city places an emphasis on its integrated public transport network with simple payment system.
However, besides this the state has also opted to develop an investment based approach – creating an investment fund, SGInnovate, a private limited company wholly owned by the Singapore Government, which seeks out transformational technologies and provides equity-based investments, access to talent and support in building customer traction.
SGInnovate believes that Singapore has all the resources and capabilities needed to tackle ‘hard problems’ that matter to people around the world. As part of its Deep Tech Nexus Strategy, it is focused on adding tangible value to the Singapore deep tech startup ecosystem in two key areas – development of Human Capital and deployment of Investment Capital. With the support of partners and co-investors, SGInnovate backs deeply technical founders through equity-based investments, access to talent, and support in building customer traction. These efforts are prioritised around transformational technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and MedTech, which represent impactful and scalable answers to global challenges.
This gives the city a stake in TRANStech – both through the regulation of transport and also in the development of next generation mobility – gaining both capital returns and social returns.