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Investing In Growth

Posted on 10/10/2011

This week’s topic: To what extent has the presence of government or government-funded venture capital (VC) bodies helped in the development of the local VC industry? Going forward, what needs to be done to build up Singapore’s VC industry, and should this include the presence of governmentVC firms?

To help develop the VC industry, the government could implement a dollar-matching scheme in which the government matches the investment of a private VC firm or a private equity fund, according to a pre-set ratio. This will give the local company the necessary seed money it needs to start up, run the organisation and fulfil its business objectives.

To enhance the VC framework, there could also be a company (comprised of project managers who possess a wealth of experience gleaned from working with many other successful companies) that will act like a supervisory board or an independent board of directors that exists outside the company. This board will have the capability to guide and even help to strategise the operations of those companies with VC investments would pay a certain fee to the advisory committee.

Source: The Business Times, 10 October 2011