Amid a world in lockdown, one bold startup eyes international expansion

Amid a world in lockdown, one bold startup eyes international expansion

What do you do when COVID-19 upends “business as usual”? In early 2020, as the pandemic spread across the globe, businesses in France began to shut down and projects slowed to a halt.

“When the lockdown started in France, every contract stopped,” says Mr Dominique Palacci, CEO of Stimshop, a seven-year-old French startup providing pioneering technology that uses sound as a reliable and secure way to transmit data. The startup’s technology transforms any speaker or sound system into a tool for detection, geolocation, authentication, and wireless communication.

COVID-19 gave Stimshop the push they needed to do the unthinkable: embark on their maiden expansion halfway around the world, to Singapore.

Just six months later, Stimshop Asia has been incorporated as a business in Singapore, and is looking for a business developer and a research team to bridge its French and Singaporean arms. It also signed its first deal, a collaboration with Indian company SOMRAS Ventures to create a joint venture in Singapore and bring their technology to India, and are in talks to partner other companies across Asia.

It might be surprising to some that Stimshop skipped other European cities, even the allure of the European single market, and headed straight for Singapore.  A combination of strong customer opportunity, enthusiastic and open partners in Asia and a supportive ecosystem in Singapore made the choice clear for Stimshop.

Proximity matters: Moving closer to the world’s tech-hungry customers

Stimshop expanded its presence with one clear objective: to tap on Asia’s innovation-friendly markets.

Countries like South Korea and China are already familiar with such ultrasonic technology for payments and mobile interactions — as early as 2013, Alipay piloted a system for the Beijing subway that used mobile-phone generated white noise to connect phones with vending machines.

“It’s not like in Europe, where you have to explain the technology and show that it works and so on. In Asia, we just say that we can do this, and people say ‘Okay, let’s do it!’ says Mr Palacci. “It’s more technology- and innovation-friendly.”

Having a base in Singapore also makes it easier to find and partner regional businesses. Discussions with French multinational telecommunications company, Orange, are in the pipeline to bring Physical Connect, a product featuring Stimshop’s technology, to clients in the region. The deal with SOMRAS Ventures will see their technology potentially being used in the UAE, as well as in the museums, airports, and railways of India. Stimshop is also considering partnerships in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Why Singapore? Trusted partners, IP protection, and innovation ecosystem

The ease with which Stimshop could access and engage potential partners in Singapore, even before it settled in the country, was one of the key factors that convinced Stimshop that Singapore was the right place for it in Asia.

As early as April, while pitching Stimshop’s technology at the France–Singapore Innovation Matching Day, an initiative by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) that matches innovative European startups with leading Singapore corporations, such as Singapore Airlines and investment organisations, such as Airmaker and ST Engineering Ventures, Mr Palacci remembers the audience being “very open” to the opportunities that their technology could offer. In another EDB-hosted virtual event on startups and COVID-19, Mr Palacci also connected with a potential partner in Indonesia.

As a developer of cutting-edge wireless transmission technology, another key consideration for Stimshop is intellectual property (IP) protection.

Singapore was therefore a natural choice. The WEF Global Competitiveness Report ranked Singapore top in Asia for IP protection in 2019 and the US Chamber of Commerce commended the country’s “advanced national IP framework” as a key strength, scoring it particularly highly in patents, copyrights, and the commercialisation of IP assets — all important considerations for tech-intensive startups.

For Stimshop, the ecosystem in Singapore is further enhanced by a research-intensive academic sector. In 2020, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings named the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University within the top 50 worldwide for research, taking into account research reputation, income, and productivity —a testament to the country’s leadership in innovation.

Already in collaboration with two research institutes in France, moving to Singapore allows Stimshop to also partner Singaporean universities on their newest technological development, “multi-element by ultrasound”, which accurately pinpoints the source of a sound using a calibrated array of microphones and speakers.

Growing a startup: Assistance and networks one can count on

Stimshop Asia is Stimshop’s first foray outside of France, which Mr Palacci describes as “a great jump” for the company into uncharted territories.

In this unfamiliar business environment, assistance from organisations like Pramex, a French consultant specialising in international development, and La French Tech Singapore, a non-profit network of French entrepreneurs, helps grease the wheels for seamless relocation processes.

Once Stimshop Asia was in place, Mr Palacci found further support from agencies like the Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI), which eases startups into business ecosystems here.

“I met IPI, and they were also keen on our technology. Since June, there’s a new product with ultrasound technology in their newsletter each month, and we’re starting to have good connections with other companies through these kinds of publications,” says Mr Palacci.

Despite being new to the business ecosystem and making ultrasonic technology available here for the first time, the startup is already in “very positive” talks with MediaLab and Swipe Labs, two businesses who are keen to integrate Stimshop’s technology into their offerings.

Singapore: A sense of “business as usual” in difficult times

Even as COVID-19 disrupts the way people across the world work, Stimshop’s experience in Singapore shows that business objectives like expanding into different markets and finding new opportunities can still be within reach.

Singapore’s digital readiness means that even with lockdowns, companies can still go about their business safely and efficiently.

“I was really impressed during the lockdown because really, in France, everybody was, ‘I can’t work’, ‘I have to stay home’, and so on. In Asia, there was no problem. In Singapore, people were like, ‘OK, let’s take a meeting’, ‘Let’s call’, and ‘Here are your documents’ — wow,” says Mr Palacci.

For startups like Stimshop, who had their sights set on Asia even before the pandemic, going ahead with their expansion plans makes good business sense. What may appear as a bold move is actually one based on sound judgment and a deep appreciation of the security and opportunity on offer both in Singapore and in the region.