Entry Pass to Venture Capitalists
For those who have read my profile or past entries, you would be aware that I was an intern under the Enterprise division of the Ministry of Trade over at sunny Singapore. During this stint, I got to be involved in many eye-opening projects; projects that provided the overview on the local entrepreneurial landscape. There was one particular project on the VC landscape in Singapore that gave me the “Oh My Gosh” moment.
With reference to Israel, America, and even China, the local VC landscape is lacking in comparison. I’m not sure of the exact reasons for this. But some pointers came upto my mind :
- Small local market size, thus most start-ups have to ensure that they can go international and stay competitive
- Singapore is “laggy” in the entrepreneurial scene. This is attributed by our heavy reliance on jobs from foreign SMEs and MNCs during the first few decades since our independence
- Lack of diverse talents coming together to form effective management teams. Like it or not, the habit of isolation among Singaporeans have made it harder for people from different
- Crowding out effect due to too many Government grants? This is highly controversial though. The Singapore government has been very proactive in giving out grants, and this can be seen on the enterpriseone website.
One of the government schemes that has collaborated with private equity is the Business Angels Scheme (BAS). Under this scheme, for every S$1 invested by Business Angel Funds, the governemnt will invest S$2 (capped to S$1.5 million)
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One of my supervisor then told me about his own personal side project and asked if I would like to join in. Given that it is…SUMMER BREAK now, I agreed.
Basically, he is very much involved in the private venture capital industry. The company he is acting as an advisor to, Gingko Capital LLC, specializes in institutional placement services for alternative asset managers including private equity funds and venture capital funds.
By joining his network, you can expect to find videos from past entrepreneurs, VCs, invitations to VC-Entrepreneurs summits (past invites include Founder of Skype) , contacts and personal referrals to top-quartile VCs such as Walden International (VC behind About.com), Draper Fisher Jurvetson (VC behind Meebo, Baidu and Skype) and Sequoia Capital.
See what is available onthe site (e.g. membership, purchase via Paypay and do remember to write in to gingkocapital@gmail.com for the the 10% discount. The discount code to email is: SLPAUL.
Thanks!
For some extra read on the advisor of Gingko Capital, Tan Yinglan, read: Tan Yinglan
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Musings of a seedling 