SEEDS Capital (SEEDS), the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), has appointed 20 new local and global partners to co-invest in innovative Singapore-based deep tech startups.
Under the Startup SG Equity scheme 1 , SEEDS will set aside S$150 million ($110 million) over the next three years, to catalyze another S$300 million ($220 million) through its private sector partners, in areas including advanced manufacturing, pharmbio/medtech, agrifood tech, sustainability (such as energy, circular economy, urban mobility, water), spacetech and quantumtech, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.
With the new appointments, SEEDS now has a pool of 52 co-investors with strong technical and domain expertise, commercial knowledge, international networks, early-
growth investment capabilities, and the ability to lead funding rounds, which will help startups scale successfully.
According to the statement, new partners like East Ventures (Indonesia), Global Brain (Japan), HIVEN (South Korea), Paspalis Capital (Australia) and Valuence Ventures (United States / South Korea) provide resources and global networks to support startups in exploring and entering new markets, for customer acquisition or diversifying supply chains.
For instance, Paspalis’ strong presence in Australia’s Northern Territory has provided SEEDS’ Spacetech investees like Equatorial Space Systems with opportunities to test-bed their solutions.
East Ventures’ extensive networks in Indonesia has also helped SEEDS’ investee Mesh Bio secure its first Indonesian customer and has also supported AMILI to expand its operations into Indonesia.
“Expanding overseas, especially into Japan, presents challenges such as cultural differences, communication barriers, and navigating high-context corporate environments,
“Many Singapore startups find it difficult to adapt to Japan’s intricate decision-making processes and indirect communication styles,” said Tatsuya Matsumoto, Partner, Global Brain.
He said the firm actively supports its portfolio companies by helping them localize their strategies and refine their value propositions for the Japanese market.
“Additionally, we guide them in building relationships and fitting their solutions into the larger strategic goals of Japanese corporates,
“This hands-on support ensures smoother market entry and fosters long-term partnerships,” he added.
It is noted that the new appointments also include local investors familiar with Singapore’s operating landscape, who can advise and mentor startups in areas like regulation and scaling.
These funds can amplify their deployment in Singapore, contributing to the local capital pool and ecosystem development.
Some of these include Vickers Venture Partners, iGlobe Partners, K3 Ventures, Antares Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures and Tin Men Capital.
“Despite the relative nascency of Singapore's deep tech landscape compared to more mature startup ecosystems, we feel that the deep tech ecosystem here is reaching a critical point, thanks largely to the numerous government initiatives,
“While we have made selective deep tech investments in the past, we are extremely excited about our current pipeline, which includes a significantly higher proportion of deep tech startups, with founders targeting diverse areas such as material science in agri-tech, advanced robotics, artificial intelligence for healthcare diagnostics, and next-generation semiconductor technologies across Southeast Asia.,” said Arun Pai, Principal, Monk’s Hill Ventures.
According to the statement, deep tech startups in particular require more support, as they often face long technology and product development periods and require substantial capital investment, especially at the growth stage, for production lines, industrial scaling, or clinical trials.
New partner funds like healthcare VCs Kurma Partners, 22Health Ventures and Trinity Innovation Biosciences Singapore; sustainability VCs Eurazeo and Shift4Good; as well as hard tech VCs Xora, Matter Venture Partners and ST Engineering Ventures are equipped with industry and technical expertise to better guide and support the development of these technologies.
“In 2025, we expect (investment) activity to accelerate further due to the maturity of key technologies and their increasing economic viability, driving broader adoption,” said Julien Mialaret, Operating Partner, and Ernest Xue, Director, Eurazeo.
“Additionally, concerted efforts in Europe and Asia to support green technologies and low- carbon economies will further fuel investment momentum,
“Our focus will remain on helping founders scale solutions effectively across target markets,” they added.
Cindy Khoo, Chairman of SEEDS Capital, said she is happy to see strong interest from the venture capital community, ranging from established Singapore-based funds to international funds with deep expertise and experience backing deep tech category leaders, as well as corporate venture funds looking to back promising startups here with synergistic technologies and business models.
“SEEDS is committed to growing Singapore’s startup ecosystem and will double down on efforts to nurture a strong core of deep tech startups,
“We are excited to work closely with our new co-investment partners to further develop and scale the next generation of innovative, impactful technologies,” she added.
To date, close to S$3 billion ($2.2 billion) has been invested in over 330 startups under the Startup SG Equity scheme.
To better support the development of early to early-growth stage deep tech startups, SEEDS had also raised its co-investment cap from S$8 million ($5.88 million) to S$12 million ($8.81 million) for each deep tech startup.