Singapore's venture capital market grows increasingly attractive

Despite a slump in funding, Singapore’s venture capital market remained active in the first nine months, The Straits Times reported.

According to a report by Enterprise Singapore and research firm Pitchbook issued in November, firms headquartered in the country raised $4.05 billion across 369 deals in the nine months ending September, down slightly from $4.3 billion and 410 deals in the same period in 2023.

On the other hand, the nation captured the lion’s share of venture capital among the ASEAN countries, accounting for 58% of total deal volume and 68% of deal value.

Venture activity was uneven within Singapore’s start-up ecosystem, with some sectors seeing dips in deal volume and value compared with 2023, according to data from the government-backed Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan.

Local general tech firms secured $3.2 billion across 273 deals, slightly down from $3.3 billion and 292 deals a year ago. Deep tech firms raised $800 million across 96 deals, compared with $1 billion and 118 deals in the same period in 2023.

Against this backdrop, the Singaporean Government announced in October that it will invest $440 million to attract more venture capital firms to invest in local deep tech start-ups.