Promising start-ups stand to benefit from Mustard Seed, a new business angel group with an initial investment fund of S$10 million (US$6.3 million).
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The ongoing promotion of entrepreneurship in Singapore has received a shot in the arm with the launch of a new business angel group called The Mustard Seed BAF LLP. The announcement, which was made public on 1 September, will further boost the Republic's entrepreneurial effort to establish new and innovation-driven business ventures.
JOINING OF FORCES
Mustard Seed sees the rallying together of 12 business angels hailing from diverse industry backgrounds, such as law, fi nance, IT and maritime. The pooling of resources has resulted in a S$10 million (US$6.3 million) fund that will be used to invest in promising start-ups. Besides the initial capital sunk in by Mustard Seed, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) will also match this dollar-for-dollar. Start-ups can thus look forward to equity funding of up to a combined S$2 million (US$3.1 million) from both Mustard Seed and EDB.
This source of extra funding is available as Mustard Seed comes under EDB's Business Angel Scheme (BAS) which was announced in September last year. Under the scheme, Business Angel Funds are to be initiated by pre-qualified groups of prominent and established business angels, with strong records in investments and business management skills.
THE RIGHT MENTORS
Indeed, Mustard Seed founder Winston Tan, who is also managing director, Corporate Brokers International Pte Ltd, is no stranger to the business angel community. Besides holding an existing portfolio of private equities, he was also involved in the Mentored CEOs Growth Program, which was introduced by the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Entrepreneurship Centre in 2003.
"The mustard seed grows rapidly into a very big tree," Tan says. "The idea was to have a scheme which is funded directly and fully supported by accredited business angels who would be able to lend strategic value to the companies. The angels are expected to play an active role in the growth of the companies by offering their contacts and experiences."
And Tan is certainly well acquainted in this area. After all, under the Mentored CEOs Growth Program, he had offered his guidance to NUS start-up D-MAX, which conceived the I-3GS System, a wireless communications infrastructure.
"We are not limiting ourselves to any one industry," highlights Tan. "As long as you show that your business is viable and has tremendous potential growth, we will consider funding it. Already, we have a pipeline of 10 deal-flows for consideration."
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Already, start-ups raring to get their ideas off the ground have warmly welcomed Mustard Seed's entry into the BAS.
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THE INNOVATORS SPEAK
Already, start-ups raring to get their ideas off the ground have warmly welcomed Mustard Seed's entry into the BAS. Singular ID Pte Ltd is one such company that has voiced its approval. Through extensive nanotechnology research, Singular ID has rolled out enxure, a customisable, fully integrated enterprise brand security system that efficiently and cost-effectively "fingerprints" objects for individual real-time authentication.
"We are in a growth stage in which we need to secure more customers and start more extensive global marketing," says Dr Adrian Burden, CEO, Singular ID. "Mustard Seed funding would help us achieve these goals by providing timely investment and a value-adding network of partners through their involvement in the funding initiative. The funds would be used to market and sell our products, grow our application development team to enable us to customise products for particular clients, and of course grow our product development team to make sure we continue to provide innovative new products in the arena."
Condat Pte Ltd, which is hoping to capture a slice of the global wireless data network market with its low power, low data rate mesh network solution known as ScatterWeb, is also approving of Mustard Seed. The company's CEO, Stefan Wiesner, says that the funding will help Condat create new features and functions to further enhance ScatterWeb, a mesh network that collects and relays data for various applications in "high growth consumer markets such as security, utility, telemetry and logistics."
Proving that Mustard Seed supports innovations across all industries is biotechnology start-up InfleXion Corp which, within two short years, is already enjoying success with its Nose Cancer early detection kit utilising its proprietary NPC-REAAD™ technology. "The company will benefit from Mustard Seed funding as a platform to raise more funds to market its technology worldwide as well as seek suitable merger partners," says Vincent Lee, CEO, InfleXion. "InfleXion can use the funds for entering new markets as well as developing its next blockbuster."
To be considered for Mustard Seed funding, interested parties can submit their business plans, along with the curriculum vitas of their founders and other key management members to bas@edb.gov.sg or to Corporate Brokers International at cbipl@starhub.net.sg.
"EDB is delighted to work with Mustard Seed to invest in promising start-ups," affirms Teo Ming Kian, chairman, EDB, "and we certainly hope to see more business angels pooling their resources together to help young enterprises in Singapore."
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