Temasek, Microsoft tie-up to boost Singapore startup scene

Six of Singapore’s biggest firms will provide mentorship.

Aspiring Singapore entrepreneurs are a step closer to the startup of their dreams, thanks to a partnership between Temasek and Microsoft.

According to an announcement on its website, Temasek and six of its portfolio companies have joined the Microsoft Accelerator (MA) programme as official global network partners in Seattle, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Bangalore.

The mentor-driven MA programme will provide startups with support to rapidly scale into enterprise-ready firms. This includes tackling issues that come with launching a company, global expansion, and securing customers.

Temasek and its portfolio companies will participate in the MA programme by providing part time programme managers. Involved in the projects are CapitaLand, Ascendas, InnoVen Capital, Quann, ST Engineering, and Fullerton Financial.

“[The MA programme] offers partnering opportunities between promising startups and our portfolio companies to provide innovative solutions to operating pain points and enhance customer experience,” commented Ong Beng Teck, Managing Director, Enterprise Development Group at Temasek.

“For the startups, this provides them with the opportunity to work with established companies to pilot and validate their products and technologies. This is therefore a win-win partnership,” Ong added.

Temasek and its portfolio companies have identified urban solutions, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, financial technology, cybersecurity, healthcare IT and digital media as key focus areas for the initiative.

Join Singapore Business Review community
Join Singapore Business Review community
A NOTE FROM SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.