The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) recently released research demonstrating insights from the start-up community in the UK.
The results shows that much of the start-up scene (51 percent) saw Singapore’s Smart Nation vision as an attractive to them.
“Singapore offers a natural second home for those looking to expand, providing all the raw ingredients available for entrepreneurs to build and grow their businesses. As Singapore pursues its vision to become a Smart Nation, it is working to tackle important shared global challenges arising from the realities of ageing populations and urban density through technology and innovation,” Executive Deputy Chairman of IDA, Mr Steve Leonard stated,
“Corporates, universities, research institutes, investors and start-ups are working together to devise new solutions that can tackle areas such as healthcare, transportation and resources sustainability.”
Results of the survey were based from a study of 193 UK-based early-stage tech start-ups, those which have been operating for less than five years.
The aim was to better understand the business challenges they faced and what was required of them to expand their reach to a global market.
The responses demonstrated that 41 percent of start-ups are most challenged by growing their customer base. While Southeast Asia is home to over 600 million consumers, this poses an opportunity for start-ups to reach a larger market.
15 percent of these start-ups have already expanded their efforts abroad, 17 percent plan to relocate at least part of the business abroad, and 19 percent are considering relocating in the future.
With respect to the regulatory and political environment, 79 percent relayed that they want ease of doing business and 70 percent want policies that support innovation.
As Singapore has invested USD $22 Billion in research and development over the last decade and is at the top of the World Bank rankings for ease of doing business, it comes to almost no surprise that Singapore’s Smart Nation vision is enticing to start-ups from across the pond.
To see an infographic on the results of the study, click the link here.
