FIRST Ambassador briefing germanY
Dr Ulrich A. Sante was appointed as ambassador of Germany to Singapore in July 2017. He shared his thoughts on Singapore and Germany’s business relations. “The German economy is well known as an export economy, thriving upon selling German products and services in foreign markets. “German Engineering” is not just a label. It’s the expression of generations of aggregated knowledge and experience, not only in technical fields. And it resembles our permanent quest for excellence.’he noted. Germany has exported goods for approximately €6.7 billion to Singapore, and Singapore goods with a value of more than 5.3 billion to Germany. “The important thing now is to make good use of these relations to participate in the age of digitalisation, “ he said. About 1,600 German companies are present in Singapore, having invested into setting up their Singapore subsidiaries to do business not just with Singapore, but with and in the other states in the region. ”There is an open field for Singaporean investment in Germany. German industry is no longer the behemoth of steel and coal, it is smart industries today, cutting-edge technology for the production methods of the future, and research and development to make sure this future happens,”he said. “I invite all Singaporean businessmen interested in investing abroad to have a look at these opportunities in Germany. One of the justly famous German trade fairs would surely be a good opportunity to do so,”he noted. Much of Ambassador Sante’s career was related to transatlantic and European security and defense issues in Brussels and German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. He was the head of press and cultural affairs at the German Embassy in Paraguay. He was also appointed as the spokesperson of the German Embassy in Washington.
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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | JANUARY 2018
It’s boom time for venture capital
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ingapore’s venture capital (VC) fundraising is experiencing a gold rush as investors continue funneling their money to the citystate’s burgeoning startup scene. In October alone, VC firms like Vertex Ventures and Vickers Venture Partners completed their biggest fundraising yet with $210m and $230m, respectively. This growing interest in Singapore’s startup scene reflects the appetite for investors to look for opportunities beyond the United States and China, which comprised the lion’s share of VC investments in Asia in recent years. Data from KPMG’s Venture Pulse 2017 revealed that Singapore’s venture investments totalled US$725.3m in the second quarter of this year, boosted by internet company SEA Limited’s US$550m funding round. “Southeast Asia has seen investment activity rise most strongly in Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam in the past 12 to 18 months, with notable transactions such as Grab, ARA, Tokopedia, and SEA at transaction values well above what is commonly found in our region,” said Dr. Thomas Lanyi, chairman, Singapore Venture Capital Association. Apart from venture capital, there is also another trend rising in Southeast Asia:
List of deals <US$100m invested in ASEAN in Q1-Q3 2017
Source: Preqin and Singapore Venture Capital Association
corporate venture capital, or CVC. Analysis from SVCA revealed that three of the top five deals this year are CVCs in Singapore: Grab Holdings’ $2b deal, Ara Asset Management’s $1.3b buyout deal, and SEA Limited’s Series E fund.
KPMG’s Venture Pulse 2017 revealed that Singapore’s venture investments totalled US$725.3m in the second quarter of this year.
Rise of corporate venture capital SVCA’s director expressed caution saying that this is a double-edged sword. “Whilst PEs and VCs may find increasing competition from corporates willing to invest at heightened valuations due to perceived synergies, this growing interest of corporate investors from China, Japan, and the US could also pave the exit routes for PEs and VCs looking to divest their stakes,” said Yee. “The rise of CVCs in later rounds of financing is also a boon for VCs in Southeast Asia, typically with limited fund sizes of less than US$100m. and hence may not have sufficient capital to continue support in later financing rounds,” she noted. (For more stories on funding, see page 20)
Mobile App Watch
EZi Wallet offers digital payment systems for F&B chains EZi Wallet is a mobile-to-mobile payments system that digitises any card-based service in a customer’s physical wallet—from reward cards, loyalty points programmes, promo vouchers, to payments via a QR code-based system. It also makes it easy for the store to handle EZi Wallet transactions through a simple point of sale process, whilst also granting a business owner access to real-time sales reports and mobile ordering features. Chang Cheng Group was amongst the first to try out Ezi Wallet when they sought a cashless payment solution for its more than 200 food outlets in Singapore “For Chang Cheng, the initial project involved creating a customer loyalty program, and cashless payment gateway for their brand,” said Ian Lee Thye Guan, founder of EZi Technology. The startup is now busy rolling out its platform solution to the rest of Chang Cheng outlets in Singapore.
Ian Lee Thye Guan, founder of EZi Technology.