SG emerges as top Southeast Asian destination for start-up investment

The Lion City is home to 12 unicorns and over 9,300 startups.

Housing over 9,300 start-ups and 12 unicorns, it was no surprise that Singapore emerged as the top destination for start-up investment in Southeast Asia.

According to KPMG's Emerging Giants in Asia-Pacific study, Singapore also accounted for 8.1% or US$2.65b of the total venture capita total value in the region which was at US$32.62b as of Q1 22.

"The city is an ideal base for companies with global ambitions," the study said.

What also made Singapore a top destination is its top 10 technology-focused new economy businesses or "emerging giants" which have a combined value of US$3.2b.

Fintech companies dominated Singapore's emerging giants, with B2B payments platform Spenmo leading the list.

Spenmo also ranked 9th amongst the leading emerging giants in Asia-Pacific.

There were five other fintech companies on Singapore's list namely, Stader Labs, imToken, Multiverse labs, ASpire, and DeBank.

"From Singapore’s position as a global and regional financial centre, we’ve observed increased interest in venture capital participation in Series A and B rounds of innovative firms in either B2B software or financial services sectors across Europe and Asia," Kee Joo Wong, CEO of HSBC Singapore, said.

Moving forward, KPMG said Singapore's challenge will be to continue attracting unicorns to reside in the city,

"Strong ecosystem support will be needed, such as public and private programmes and incentives for 'hot sectors', an environment that attracts and grooms top talent, as well as a strong purpose across industries and the nation to solve priority problems and create measurable change for the world," says Ong Pang Thye, Managing Partner at KPMG Singapore, said.

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