EDB New Ventures, the corporate venture building arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), today announced the launch of the Corporate Venture Launchpad (CV Launchpad). The $10 million pilot programme supports large and established Singapore-based companies in building ventures in new growth areas beyond their existing core businesses.

The CV Launchpad programme is part of broader efforts by EDB New Ventures to advance the venturing ecosystem across companies in Singapore. It is designed to support companies which are new to venturing from Singapore and will enable them to keep ahead of competition and disruption with innovative products, services and business models.

Venture studios appointed by EDB New Ventures for the programme will work alongside the companies throughout the process to incubate fresh business ideas in a phased approach within six months. With the CV Launchpad programme, companies will be able to launch new ventures with the speed and nimbleness of a startup while leveraging the unique competitive advantages of its parent company, which include customer relationships, deep domain expertise, technical capabilities, and strong brand recognition.

Dr Beh Swan Gin, Chairman, EDB, said: “Large local and multinational companies in Singapore are embracing innovation and entrepreneurship to keep ahead of competition and disruption. As companies pursue opportunities in sectors that are new for them, the creation of these ventures have the potential to become a growth driver for the Singapore economy. The Corporate Venture Launchpad programme seeks to spur companies to create new ventures from Singapore, that can scale to become globally competitive businesses. These corporate ventures will complement our vibrant start-up ecosystem, to create exciting job opportunities and new entrepreneurial career pathways in Singapore.”

Concept validation sprints
The CV Launchpad supports each participating company through the early stages of starting a new venture, by having a small team undertake concept validation sprints to collect customer insights, test desirability of business concepts and determine viability of the business before building the product or service.

Concept validation sprints apply venture-building methodologies to develop ideas into an investible business, with a plan that is data-backed and validated through in-depth testing with the market in an accelerated time period of 3 to 6 months. Please find further details of the sprints in Annex A.

“While companies have the innovation capacity, much of their focus is often on optimising core business operations. Building ventures with an agile and autonomous entrepreneurial team will allow them to effectively search and build new growth areas. Concept validation sprints with the support of venture studios allow companies to take a customer and market-first approach to determine what new business to build, and is often the first step in their corporate venturing journey,” said Mr Choo Heng Tong, Executive Vice President, New Ventures and Innovation, EDB.

The pilot programme which will run for one year has an expected capacity to undertake 20 concept validation sprints. EDB New Ventures will support up to 50% of the cost of each concept validation sprint. For high potential ventures launched from this programme, EDB New Ventures may provide further risk-sharing capital and value creation support beyond the sprints to see through their early stages of growth.

Appointed venture studios
An integral part of the CV Launchpad is the partnership with venture studios, which are specialised in providing services such as ideation, incubation and building of new ventures. Earlier today, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed between EDB New Ventures and 4 venture studios appointed for this programme – BCG Digital Ventures, FutureLabs Ventures, Leap by McKinsey and Rainmaking. Details of the appointed venture studios can be found in Annex B. 

The CV Launchpad programme will be open for application from 6 May 2021. Companies interested in the programme can visit the website for more details.