Singapore state investment firm Temasek will pump S$1 billion ($739 million) a year into deep-tech investments across a range of domains, The Business Times reported.
These include advanced manufacturing, disruptive materials, net-zero tech, life sciences, and food tech, said the city state’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Friday (October 15).
Through these deep-tech investments, Singapore will be able to strengthen its position in the global technology supply chain, he said at the RIE (Research, Innovation and Enterprise) Industry Day 2021 event.
“I hope that Temasek will develop new global champions from these investments, in time to come,” he added.
Temasek said the S$1 billion amount is an annual allocation and part of the company’s allocation for innovation, responding to The Business Times’ queries.
Heng urged investors to be prepared to power the changes that require long gestation and patient capital. Deep-tech startups, in particular, tend to take much longer than several years to exit, compared to other successful startups, he reportedly said.
The Singapore government has also committed S$25 billion ($18.5 billion) to research, innovation and enterprise over the next five years, as part of its RIE 2025 plan first announced in December 2020.
Heng said that RIE 2025 focuses on human health and potential; urban solutions and sustainability; manufacturing, trade, and connectivity; and smart nation and the digital economy.
Temasek is one of the prominent tech investors not only in Southeast Asia’s tech space but across the globe. In August, the Singaporean investor has launched Aicadium, an AI tech and solutions operation based in Singapore and San Diego, California. The company is set up to support business outcomes for Temasek’s portfolio companies through achieving operational artificial intelligence within their organizations.
In September, data platform Global SWF noted that Temasek has so far deployed more capital into the city-state’s tech sectors than in any previous full-year.
Global SWF: Temasek becomes Singapore ‘super-incubator’ with a suite of in-house startups