Singapore is well known globally as the best place in the world to start a business, let be the transparent procedures and the ease of registering one. The availability of government grants and funding are also one of the reasons why startups these days can flourish so easily without much financial limitations as well.
Caught up with an old colleague over casual coffee yesterday. Apparently he has links with several government agencies and an authorised disburser of the Media Development Authority’s (MDA) Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Microfunding scheme, as well as firms from the private sector looking to fund promising startups up with grants valued (no cap, no minimum, no maximum) based on the startup, so I think I will let you all into this if this fits your shoes.
Though not exactly much, but personally I think this is a very promising “bandwagon” for anyone in Singapore with great ideas, but limited financially. I’ve seen startups fall even before their first birthday, so I believe this is very promising for such small businesses to pull through and surviving this critical year. He also told me of a firm recently granted $50,000 for their startup despite how bleak their idea was, but it pulled through as well.
The procedures for the grant are simple as well- both Singaporeans and foreigners are all welcomed and you will get funding upon approval of your business plan. No company is required if you are a Singaporean, otherwise you need to be a registered company in Singapore with a minimum 30% local shareholding.
So if you are a startup looking to launch a business in the Interactive Digital Media field, let be a new interactive webportal (even basic ones like hardwarezone, to facebook or even ultra-high bandwidth sites such as youtube) or even launching a physical product (e.g gadgets, telecommunications, community orientated gizmos, etc) or a Polytechnic/University student looking to sell your ideas/final year projects as a startup company in Singapore, feel free to drop me a contact and I will furnish you more details on the grant.
This could just be the start of many great things to come.
