Starting Up? A Guide to Entrepreneurship in Singapore

Gan Xin Chen
4 days ago
9 min read

In this Explainer, find out...

How is the Singapore Government supporting startups in Singapore
What schemes are available for startups in Singapore?
How does Singapore’s policies compare to that of other countries?

Introduction

“[N]urturing homegrown startups…will strengthen our enterprise ecosystem…Importantly, this will create more opportunities for Singaporeans to secure good jobs and grow their careers.”

This is the sentiment shared by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s Budget 2026 speech, where he highlighted the importance of improving Singapore’s enterprise ecosystem.

Indeed, the startup space is today one filled with new challenges and opportunities. Especially in light of the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one can expect the speed of disruption across almost every stage of the business cycle to significantly increase. At the same time, new challenges like greater competition, faster imitation, changing investor expectations, and growing pressure to hire talent have emerged. Yet AI can also lower barriers to product development for entrepreneurs.

In this changing environment, Singapore comes from a place of strength. It has ranked 4th globally in the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Index, and its ecosystem includes over 4,000-4,5000 tech startups, 400 venture capital firms and 220 incubators and accelerators.

Amidst such a background, this Policy Explainer examines Singapore’s entrepreneurship environment and the support structures available for startups. Before concluding, Singapore’s policies will be compared to China and South Korea’s efforts to support their startup ecosystems. This will provide an additional insight into Singapore’s approach to supporting startups.

Starting up in Singapore

Singapore’s support for startups began as early as 1999 with the introduction of Technopreneurship 21 (T21). T21 was launched as a response to the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, where the Government realised that foreign Multinational Corporation (MNC)-led growth would not be sustainable in the long run. As a result, T21 was designed to promote a more startup-friendly environment in Singapore by:

Using education to encourage critical thinking and entrepreneurship;

Developing facilities and infrastructure for innovation and networking;

Creating a regulatory environment that was friendly to startups; and

Facilitating the financing of startups.

Today, the importance of entrepreneurship and startups are evident from the various types of assistance available to startups at different stages of development. As illustrated in Figure 1, startups must go through a process of formation, validation, then growth before becoming successful.

Government assistance thus comes in to fuel the transition between the different stages of development. First, assistance is provided during the transition from formation to validation, where the key aim is to develop the startup’s product. Thereafter, support is also available in supporting the startup’s transition from validation to growth, where companies increase production to meet demand for their product. Following that, the government also helps startups continue to grow and expand their reach.

Let us now turn to consider each of these stages in greater detail.

Formation to Validation

To begin with, let us consider the various assistance available to a startup at the formation and validation stages. It is at this stage that the startup begins assembling its team, while ideating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that validates the business concept.

At this stage, key sources of assistance come from the National Research Foundation, Enterprise Singapore and Economic Development Board.

National Research Foundation (NRF)

The NRF operates furthest upstream by turning research into entrepreneurship. Through programmes like the National Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP), NRF helps researchers refine ideas, validate market demand, and turn lab-based work into commercially viable ventures.

The importance of NRF lies in the sectors Singapore wants to compete in. Under the Research, Innovation, and Enterprise 2030 (RIE2030) programme, the Government is investing S$37 billion into research, innovation and enterprise from 2026-2030. This investment focuses on areas like AI and data and computing. Such a focus is not surprising, given that deep-tech startups have attracted US$1 billion or more in funding from investors annually over the past five years.

Enterprise Singapore

Enterprise Singapore helps firms build capabilities, innovate, and go global, while supporting Singapore as a hub for trade and startups. Hence, it administers much of the Startup SG suite, a set of policies that support startups at various stages of development. To help startups move from formation to validation, EnterpriseSG runs the Startup SG Founder and Startup SG Tech schemes. Additionally, they support Startup SG Infrastructure, where facilities developed by the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) serve as hubs for entrepreneurs.

Schemes such as Startup SG Founder and Startup SG Tech provide support to help founders move from idea to validation. These schemes are aimed at reducing early-stage risk, especially before a firm can attract private investment. Particularly, initiatives like the Startup SG Tech are aimed at deep tech projects that often require longer research and development cycles, higher upfront costs, and more technical validation before they can attract private investment. Hence, they typically require more intensive early-stage support. In this sense, these grants are meant to encourage experimentation by helping founders cross the difficult early gap between concept, prototype, and market validation.

Simultaneously, the Startup SG Infrastructure programme links them to spaces such as the JTC launchpads, where startups and investors cluster together. Clustering startups together can allow for more collaboration, knowledge spillovers, and can improve investor access. This can be beneficial for entrepreneurs trying to develop their first prototype or attain funding.

For example, LaunchPad @ One-North, which began with Block 71 in 2015, has grown into a seven-block startup hub that has supported over 2,400 startups, including unicorns like Carousell, PatSnap, and Nium. This approach has been extended into AI-specific infrastructure. In 2026, the Government announced Kampong AI at One-North, which DPM Gan Kim Yong described as a focal point where “talent, problem owners, researchers and resources can come together” to build a deeper AI ecosystem. When built, Kampong AI will combine business park space and residential units, making it Singapore’s first startup community to integrate work and living spaces within the same shared space. Another hub for AI startups is Lorong AI. Lorong AI has already emerged as a collaborative AI hub with over 200 AI practitioners regularly using the space, and more than 4,000 participants across 150 events in the past year.

A similar approach is evident in LaunchPad @ Punggol Digital District (PDD), which will open in phases from 2026. PDD is being positioned as a living testbed for solutions in smart city, robotics, fintech, and cybersecurity. Through the district’s Open Digital Platform, startups can connect their products to real infrastructure such as lifts, gantries, and doors. This will make it easier to test solutions in live environments.

Economic Development Board (EDB)

In contrast, EDB is more selective in the kinds of startups and founders it supports. It focuses on ventures that could become global industry leaders and strengthens Singapore’s long-term industrial capabilities. This is evident in the Global Founders Programme (GFP), which is aimed at experienced builders rather than first-time founders. This includes founders who have already scaled a startup internationally, or key employees of MNCs who have developed a major new product. EDB also offers the Corporate Venture Launchpad (CVL), which encourages companies, multinationals, and high-growth firms to build new ventures and partner with startups from Singapore.

This makes EDB particularly important in sectors where scale, large amounts of capital, and strategic relevance matter. This includes sectors like digital economy, AI, sustainability, and deep-tech.

Validation to Growth

Beyond the transition from formation to validation, various forms of assistance are also available to promote the transition from validation to growth.

Programmes like Startup SG Equity help startups move from validation to growth. At this stage, startups require more capital to improve their product. Hence, under this scheme, the government co-invests with qualified third-party investors into eligible startups. The scheme was first introduced in 2017 to address early-stage funding gaps in local technology startups. Budget 2026 marked a renewed emphasis on Startup SG Equity by allocating S$1 billion more to the scheme to expand support to growth-stage deep tech startups. Rather than trying to replace private investment, this model is meant to encourage more private investors to back promising but riskier startups. The Government shares part of the risk, making it easier for private investors to invest in sectors such as deep tech, where companies often need more time, technical validation, and capital before they can scale.

Startups at this stage of development can also benefit from the Enterprise Innovation Scheme (EIS) run by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. Unlike Startup SG Founder or Startup SG Tech, EIS is not targeted only at startups. Rather, it is a broader tax incentive that applies to businesses undertaking qualifying innovation activities. Under EIS, firms can claim 400% tax deductions or allowances on qualifying expenditure for:

Research and development;

Intellectual property (IP) registration;

IP acquisition and licensing;

Training;

Innovation projects with eligible partners; and

qualifying AI expenditure of up to S$50,000 per year.

These offerings make EIS more relevant to startups that have already begun incurring substantive innovation expenditure, as well as to larger or more established firms investing in new capabilities.

Growth

Beyond the transition from validation to growth, Enterprise Singapore also provides further support to startups. Such support is often aimed at the ecosystem-building and growth stages. Through Startup SG Accelerator, Enterprise SG backs incubators and accelerators that help startups access markets, talent, and financing. Furthermore, the Startup SG Network helps startups connect with local and global ecosystem players.

Another offering helping startups to scale up their companies and establish themselves is the EntrePass visa. This visa is for foreign entrepreneurs who have a proven track record. This could be expressed through having already obtained some funding, previously stating a business, or owning intellectual property. For example, foreign entrepreneurs who have raised at least S$100,000 in a single funding round from investors on the Startup SG Equity programme are eligible to apply for such a visa. On obtaining this visa, they are able to operate, thus expanding their reach.

How does Singapore compare?

Before concluding, a comparison with China and South Korea is useful. Both countries have recently used active state policy to shape startup formation, scaling, and technological upgrading. This makes them useful reference points for judging not only what Singapore does well, but also where its model can still be improved on.

China

China’s push to support startups began with the 2015 State Council “Guiding Opinions on Developing Mass Makerspaces and Promoting Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. This called for the expansion of makerspaces and other new entrepreneurship service platforms to provide low-cost work, networking, and shared-resource spaces for early-stage founders. Subsequently, this was institutionalised through the creation of national “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Demonstration Bases” in 2016. The first batch of “bases” included regional, university research, and enterprise-based hubs. Together, it was intended that these “bases” would pilot reforms, improve incubation, and diffuse replicable models nationwide.

These policies echo Singapore’s suite of infrastructure created to support startup incubation, especially the creation of PDD, where startups can test their models in a real world environment. Such infrastructure can help Singaporean startups create models that can be replicated across the entire country.

The Chinese Ministry of Education also issued guidelines that emphasised stronger innovation and entrepreneurship platforms in 2022. These guidelines spurred the creation of various infrastructure to support graduates looking to start their own company, including university science parks and makerspaces. Similarly, in Singapore, the location of startup launchpads near universities (Launchpad @ one-north near NUS and Launchpad @ PDD near SUTD) allows for an ecosystem of university graduates and researchers to explore opportunities for entrepreneurship.

In China, preferential tax and fee policies were also introduced in 2025 for technological innovation and high-end R&D expenses. For example, Chinese startups can get 100 per cent of their expenditure on R&D subsidised. Similarly, under Singapore’s Enterprise Innovation Scheme, companies can receive generous tax deductions on research and development spending.

South Korea

Under the Yoon administration’s “Startup Korea” policy, the Korean government has tried to support both foreign founders entering Korea and Korean startups expanding outward. To encourage foreign founders entering Korea, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups opened a Global Startup Center in 2024 to provide foreign startups with office space, meeting rooms, visa and incorporation help, networking, and training. It also moved to introduce the Startup Korea Special Visa. Under this visa, a special review committee assesses business feasibility and innovation. Thereafter, recommendations are made to the Ministry of Justice for visa issuance to successful applicants.

To support Korean founders looking to expand overseas, Korea also announced plans to provide support to newly established overseas corporations with production or R&D links to Korea. In turn, these corporations can receive the same Government support as Korean firms. As seen, the Korean Government is actively changing the legal framework so that cross-border startup activity can qualify more directly for state support.

Korea also continues to rely heavily on the Tech Incubator Programme for Startups (TIPS), where private-sector operators identify and nurture startups. The Government then provides matching support for R&D, commercialisation, overseas marketing, and follow-on scale-up. In other words, Korea is trying to make the country a more attractive base for foreign entrepreneurs and globally oriented ventures, on top of helping local startups grow.

Korea’s policies appear to place a very strong emphasis on support for firms operating across jurisdictions. Singapore may take reference from some of these policies, especially in light of perceived difficulties for Singapore startups to expand overseas.

Conclusion

Singapore’s startup policy has evolved from a late-1990s effort to foster technopreneurship to a multi-layered ecosystem today. Through its multiple agencies each targeting a specific segment of the startup journey, the government takes on multiple roles as a market shaper, ecosystem builder, and strategic co-investor. In an AI-disrupted economy, the central question is no longer whether Singapore should support startups, but whether its support system can continue evolving quickly enough to help local firms compete, grow, and create good jobs in an increasingly volatile global market.

This Policy Explainer was written by members of MAJU. MAJU is a ground-up, fully youth-led organisation dedicated to empowering Singaporean youths in policy discourse and co-creation.

By promoting constructive dialogue and serving as a bridge between youths and the Government, we hope to drive the keMAJUan (progress!) of Singapore.