Nrf gives funding to early stage VCs in singapore

Finally, my complaints have been resolved.

today the national research foundation, or nrf has awarded $60 million to 6 early stage VCs, in hope that they will in turn kick-start the start-up entrepreneurial ecosystem here in singaore.

the VCs have to raise at least 10 million each to enjoy the matching funds from nrf, so in total the pot available to start-ups is 120 million, over 8 - 10 years.

but realistically, entrepreneurs have only 5 years max to try to vie for the VC's funding as in the latter half of the fund life, the VC's will be more interested in liquidating their portfolio.

but out of the 6, only 1 is a biotech VC. Doesn't there need to be more biotech VCs in the pool to help stir up competition to find the best deals, and how does that jive with the amount of funding poured in by nrf, a*star, nus and ntu, collectively? There seems to be a disconnect.

but something is better than nothing.

however, one thing did catch my eye, some of the awardees are outfits i have not heard off, and one does not even have a website. How's that for web 2.0? But at least the nrf did not repeat the debacle that was the original tif funding, which was splash money all around except singapore. At least this time, there's money but nt big enough to get the pretenders into singapore.

i expect the entrepreneurial scene to liven up a bit more with this announcement.


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