Entrepreneur First bolsters Singapore startup ecosystem with the creation of 12 deep tech startups from its first ever cohort in March 2017
21st March 2017, Singapore: The award-winning international investment programme, Entrepreneur First (EF), is holding its first Investor Day in Singapore this afternoon. Taking place today at Google’s offices, this Investor Day sees EF’s first ever cohort in Singapore present their deep tech companies to over 250 investors.
- The 12 companies presenting were built from scratch on the Entrepreneur First programme.
- The technology they’re working on ranges from machine learning to robotics, and from cryptography to electro-coagulation.
- Over half of the founders hold a PhD in Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
- They’ve done research at NUS, NTU, Brown, and MIT, and worked at the best companies in the world, from Microsoft Research to Google.
With companies specialising in everything from sensor network security through to a space laser communications network, to chronic wound management using computer vision, the first batch of Entrepreneur First companies is a further indication to the strength and variety of deep technology startups coming out of Singapore.
Backed by SGInnovate, the company builder officially launched its first programme in Singapore for technically talented individuals in September 2016. Entrepreneur First invests in people before they have teams or ideas, and creates startups from scratch in an intensive six-month programme. Since 2011 it has worked with 450 individuals to build over 100 startups that are now valued in excess of S$1 billion. Over the past six years, the companies being created by EF are growing in value year on year. Magic Pony, one of the earlier graduates from the EF London programme, recently sold to Twitter for a reported $150m.
Individuals on the Entrepreneur First Singapore programme are supported with a monthly stipend of $5,000 (SGD). Each company that is created receives an investment of $25,000 (SGD) to support their growth. The technical individuals in this first group were advised by expert mentors on the EF team, amongst whom were successful Singaporean entrepreneurs Teik Guan Tan and Shao Ning Huang. Teik Guan Tan founded DS3, an authentication technology company which was sold to the French security firm Gemalto. Shao Ning Huang co-founded JobsCentral, which was the leading careers platform in Southeast Asia before it got acquired by US-based CareerBuilder.
All the companies that present today have received a further $42.500 in funding from Sparklabs Global, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm, and another $50.000 from SGInnovate. These additional investments showcase the investors' validation of EF’s model and the high expectations of the quality of the cohort.
Speaking about the first Singapore Investor Day, Anne Marie Droste, Director of Entrepreneur First Singapore said “We couldn’t be more excited about our first cohort in Singapore. The founders are relentless, technical, and have extreme levels of ambition. More than half of the founders you’ll see today have a PhD, and across the group of 24 individuals, there have been over 171 academic publications published. They are a true testament to Singapore’s capacity to attract and cultivate the world's most ambitious research talent. All the ingredients for building globally relevant companies are locally available, and we can’t wait to see how far they’ll go”.
Steve Leonard, Founding CEO, SGInnovate said, “Entrepreneur First has a unique model of building deep-technology startups from the 'pre-idea' stage. The SGInnovate team has been fortunate to see the EF model in action, as we work in the same physical space every day. We've witnessed the growth of some very talented technical individuals – in fields such as machine learning, VR, and robotics – evolve into founders of high-potential deep-tech startups. We passionately believe Singapore has the capability to build globally-relevant technology-intensive products. We were confident the EF team could generate some great startups in Singapore, and the showing at the ‘Investor Day’ this week is the proof. Equally importantly, the EF team will be starting work with their second cohort of potential founders very soon. SGInnovate believes in the early-stage deep-tech companies that EF has helped get started, and we are making an investment in all 12 of the companies from this first cohort.”
Shao Ning Huang, a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First Singapore, and an active angel investor said “As an angel investor in Singapore, I have gotten used to seeing companies that rely on copying successful models from the US or Europe to Singapore. The companies at Entrepreneur First are different. These founders use their deep technical knowledge to create companies based on defensible technology. They have been educated and trained here, but are building companies that will be relevant everywhere in the world.”
Alex Crompton, Entrepreneur First Singapore Director, said “The ideas that the teams are working on shows that there is an appetite for working on meaningful, futuristic ideas. These are global companies, built in Singapore. We have everything from laser communication technology to water treatment, and healthcare computer vision. To be working with founders of such high calibre, many of which have been educated at NUS, NTU or SUTD, is a rare privilege. The academic and industry experience of this cohort shows that now, more than ever, the most ambitious technical individuals want to and have the capability to lead Singaporean startups from local players to global technology pioneers.”
Frank Meehan, General Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures, said, “We are incredibly excited to be investing in the outstanding first cohort companies of Entrepreneur First Singapore from such a wide range of deep tech sectors. At SparkLabs Global Ventures and the SparkLabs Group, we have long been backers of deep tech companies in Asia, USA, Israel and Europe, and are huge believers in the vision of Entrepreneur First, Steve Leonard and SGInnovate to make Singapore the leader in driving innovative research in Asia to commercial success. Watch out Silicon Valley!”
The companies presenting at the first EFSG Investor Day are:
Ackcio - Ackcio builds reliable, real-time wireless monitoring solutions, to prevent disasters in construction.
Hydroleap - Hydroleap is making industrial wastewater treatment cheap, fast and easy, using electro-coagulation instead of chemicals.
Immerzen - Immerzen develops realistic and real-time 3D audio to match 3D visuals, allowing you to be truly present in VR and AR.
KroniKare - KroniKare provides automatic, non-invasive chronic wound assessments, within seconds. All using a normal smartphone.
Lemnis TechnologiesLemnis Technologies - Lemnis Technologies is solving the problem of VR sickness, thereby building the fundamental technology layer that will drive any VR/AR headset on the planet.
MicroSec - MicroSec is providing enterprise-grade security to industrial IoT and sensor networks, using a key management system that works on constrained sensor nodes.
Movel AI - Movel AI is a software platform that allows robots to understand the environment in the same way as humans can, using computer vision and sensor fusion.
SensorFlow - SensorFlow makes buildings energy efficient with zero upfront cost, using an end to end product built on their proprietary network stack.
Souschef - Souschef is creating the most important technology for beverage retailers since refrigeration, using modular, plug and play beverage dispensing automation.
Transcelestial Technologies -Transcelestial is re-imagining communications technology for the 21st century, creating the first ever space laser network.
Uilicious - Uilicious automates the testing of websites, without users needing to have expert coding skills.
VRCollab - VRCollab is a VR platform that allows architects to get instant approval on requested design changes, saving them weeks of their time.
For more information about Entrepreneur First, or to apply to join its next cohort, please visit www.joinef.com.
For further queries, please contact:
Anne Marie Droste: [email protected]
Roy Ong: [email protected]
About Entrepreneur First:
Entrepreneur First was founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck to help top technical talent build world-class tech startups in London and in Singapore. The Singapore office was founded in 2016 and is directed by Alex Crompton and Anne Marie Droste. It is the only investment programme in the world to accept candidates pre-team, pre-idea, with individuals selected purely on the basis of their technical ability or domain expertise. As well as pre-seed funding, the full-time programme provides individuals with mentoring and advice from the Entrepreneur First team and some of the world’s top entrepreneurs, as well as office space and legal, administrative, funding and commercial support so that each cohort has the best possible environment to meet potential co-founders and launch their startups.
The programme has so far helped 450 people to build over 100 companies who have been funded by some of the world’s leading venture investors from Europe, the United States, and Asia.
About SGInnovate:
SGInnovate is wholly owned by the Singapore government, under the purview of the National Research Foundation with a focus on enabling the entrepreneurial potential of ambitious men and women based in Singapore who believe they can build a start-up. With an emphasis on science and deep-technology, SGInnovate brings together partners from the private sector, institutes of higher learning, and research organisations as part of Singapore’s broader ecosystem of innovation. Through this ecosystem, SGInnovate connects these aspiring entrepreneurs with support for business-plan development, sources of funding, and go-to-market efforts. For more information, please visit www.sginnovate.com.
About SparkLabs Global Ventures:
SparkLabs Global Ventures is part of the SparkLabs Group, consisting of SparkLabs Accelerator Group, SparkLabs Global Ventures and late stage investment vehicle SparkLabs Capital. We believe business is now truly global, but most investors are not. Exceptional entrepreneurs that are building strong, category defining companies can be found anywhere. We are a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and operators based in Singapore, Seoul, Palo Alto, Tel Aviv and London that focus on helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.
For more information, please visit sparklabsglobal.com
About Alex Crompton:
Alex has run the EF program in London since its first cohort and is now a co-Director at Entrepreneur First Singapore - he’s supported more than 200 entrepreneurs, built more than 60 EF companies from scratch, and created EF’s approach to team building and idea development. Prior to EF, Alex worked in finance and engineering in both London and Tokyo, and started the sales team in London for a private equity backed property company. He studied Philosophy and graduated from the University of Warwick.
About Anne Marie Droste:
Anne Marie Droste is a co-Director at Entrepreneur First, running the Singapore office. She was one of the first employees at Entrepreneur First in London, and moved to Singapore in January 2016, to set up the first international programme - setting up operations to find and select the best computer scientists and engineers and helps them build deep technology companies from scratch. Prior to EF, she ran a travel agency to North Korea. Anne Marie studied Natural Sciences and graduated from Cambridge.
About Matt Clifford:
Matt Clifford MBE is the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, the world's leading technology company builder. Entrepreneur First invests in top technical individuals to help them build world-class deep technology startups from scratch in London and Singapore. Since 2011, Entrepreneur First has created over 100 startups worth over $500m including Magic Pony Technology, Tractable, StackHut, Pi-Top, OpenCosmos, Status Today and Cloud NC. Matt left McKinsey & Co to start Entrepreneur First because he believes the world’s most talented and ambitious people should be founders. He sits on the boards of Tech For Trade and Silicon Valley Comes to the UK and is Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum. Matt graduated from Cambridge, prior to studying at MIT as a Kennedy Scholar.
About Alice Bentinck:
Alice Bentinck MBE is the co-founder of Entrepreneur First and Code First: Girls. Entrepreneur First helps individuals build their own tech startups from scratch. Their biggest exit to date is Magic Pony Technology which was acquired by Twitter for a reported $150m, 18 months after it was founded. Code First: Girls is a not-for-profit that teaches young women to code for free. Alice setup Code First: Girls to try and help change the gender imbalance in tech. Alice was previously a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She has been listed in the Management Today 35 under 35, the Evening Standard's top 1000 Most Influential Londoners and the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in Tech.