SINGAPORE (June 13): Three government agencies are pooling resources to organise a mega multi-day event this November for an global audience tied by the common purpose of pushing innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Enterprise Singapore and the National Research Foundation (NRF) on Thursday announced that the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) will be merged as an event called SFF x SWITCH.
To be held between Nov 11 and 15 later this year, the SFF x SWITCH will help synergise across the themes of FinTech and Deep Tech, bringing together the business community, investors and the start-up community keen to develop new technology and ideas.
“The ecosystem is growing in Singapore, extending its reach to the region,” says Peter Ong, chairman of Enterprise Singapore, at the launch event on June 12.
SFF x SWITCH aims to be a networking platform for participants to collaborate on technological innovation across five key sectors – FinTech, urban solutions and sustainability, health and biomedical sciences, advanced manufacturing and engineering, and last but not least, digital services.
There are 40,000 startups in Singapore. Of which, 4,000 are tech startups, employing 22,000 people. There are about 100 incubators, accelerators and venture builders. 150 VC investors with regional presence in Singapore.
Ahead of the five-day conference in November, there will be a slew of related events, such as the so-called “Deal Fridays”, where investors and start-ups are match made.
The objective is to encourage capital deployment to both FinTech and non-FinTech companies. The format will be most relevant to start-ups in the seed to Series A funding stages, investors including venture capitalists, corporate venture capitalists, family offices, and possibly some super-angel investors or angel syndicates.
“Connecting financial communities with innovation ecosystems will enable today’s emerging technologies to flourish and solve the problems of tomorrow,” says Ong.
MAS and Enterprise Singapore will also host two broad-themed “Deal Mixers” giving an opportunity for both companies and investors to explore a wider spectrum of synergies and investment opportunities.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS, notes that the Singapore FinTech Festival is already the world’s largest FinTech gathering and a “marquee event” for the global FinTech community.
“Our partnership with SWITCH this year allows us to engage technology ecosystems beyond FinTech, and to present a comprehensive showcase of innovations that benefit all segments of society,” he adds.
According to Dr Cheong Wei Yang, NRF’s deputy CEO, the collaboration of SWITCH and the Singapore FinTech Festival will consolidate Singapore’s national efforts to create value from science and technology – starting from the capabilities built in the research base, through to innovation and commercialisation by our enterprises.
“We will focus on deep tech areas relevant to Singapore’s growth as a Global-Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise. We are excited to see more researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and companies coming together from all around the world, to benefit society and economy through innovation in new business models and novel technologies,” says Cheong.
