The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a national private-led organization with the mission to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore, today announced the official launch of the ACE International Centre (“ACEIC” or the “Centre”).
As part of the Government’s efforts to boost Singapore’s startup scene under the Startup SG brand, the ACEIC is a dedicated one-stop centre to support startups in international growth and expansion. The centre will facilitate opportunities for both local startups seeking regional growth and international startups setting up their bases in Singapore, strengthening our position as a leading startup hub and a launchpad for the region.
Supported by IE Singapore, JTC and SPRING Singapore, the ACEIC will assist Singaporebased startups to connect to new networks, partners, overseas markets, and access tailored programmes such as market awareness workshops and curated networking sessions. International startups and multipliers can leverage the Centre’s co-working space and local connections to find investment, technology and business opportunities.
The launch of a dedicated international Centre for startups in Singapore will also answer a growing need for local startups seeking partnerships and market access opportunities in overseas markets and also serves as an anchoring point for international startups using Singapore as a gateway to Asia.
Strategically located at the heart of the JTC LaunchPad @ one-north with more than 800 startups and 50 enablers today, the ACEIC will serve an ecosystem of startups from diverse industries including the fields of Information Communications Technologies, Media, Engineering, Biomedical, Financial Technology and Urban Solutions. The latest entrants to LaunchPad include The Trendlines Group’s first medical technology incubator outside Israel, Trendlines Medical, as well as Singapore’s first of its kind engineering-based incubator, Innosparks.
As part of ACE’s continuous efforts to establish strategic collaborations with local and international partners to help startups grow and scale up, ACE has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with KPMG at the launch. Through this MoU, ACE will be working with KPMG Digital Village to collaborate on setting up a regional co-innovation hub in Singapore, with the objective of driving co-innovation between startups and enterprises.
Mr. Edmas Neo, Executive Director of ACE, commented:
“We are excited about the tremendous prospects of building on our existing established network and ecosystems of startups, accelerators and venture capitalists to launch an international platform. We are confident that ACEIC will play a vital role in serving the globalization needs of both domestic and international startups based in Singapore and further solidify our foundation as an international business hub for entrepreneurship and place Singapore at the frontier of the global digital economy.”
Mr Jan Reinmueller, Head of KPMG Digital Village, added:
“KPMG brings to the table a strong and well-connected local and global community of startups, corporates and investors who are focused on driving co-innovation. Whether it’s helping startups solve real business challenges via corporate accelerators, or supporting the enterprises’ innovation journey, we will be working closely with ACE to grow it into the largest co-innovation hub in the region, and possibly the world.”
Mr Kow Juan Tiang, Coordinating Group Director for Infrastructure and Technology Business, IE Singapore, commented:“
“At IE Singapore, we see more tech start-ups shift gear to tap into the rising opportunities in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, where ecommerce and digitalisation efforts are taking off. It is timely to work with our trade associations and partners to centralise efforts as we help more tech start-ups plug into the regional start-up ecosystem. The ACEIC complements IE Singapore’s work with tech companies to access overseas markets, partners and new capabilities, as well as to deepen Singapore’s connections to technology hubs in the region.”
Mr Jonathan Lim, Director, Innovation, Internationalisation & Entrepreneurship, SPRING Singapore, said:
“The ACEIC will play a key role as part of Startup SG and will be one of our anchor partners for local startups to scale overseas and for global startups to land in Singapore. It will also help foster and deepen connections with other global startup ecosystems and bring in new ideas and innovations into Singapore.”
Ms. Khoo Wee Lin, Director of InfoComms Media and Start-Up Cluster, JTC, commented:
“JTC LaunchPad @ one-north has helped to catalyse and support the strong growth of startups. The launch of ACEIC will further strengthen the support system and network within LaunchPad to enable startups’ growth as they venture into international markets.”
