Singapore’s Tech Ecosystem Worth US$35bil

SINGAPORE – The city-state’s tech ecosystem is valued at US$35 billion, making it one of the countries with the most valuable tech ecosystem in the region, reported Tech Wire Asia on Tuesday morning (12 October, SGT).

Singapore’s tech ecosystem is just behind Indonesia, which is estimated to be worth US$60 billion, and these make both countries’ tech ecosystem conducive for fostering Fintech unicorns.

Last month alone, 3 new unicorns emerged in Singapore. For instance, Carousell Group reached its unicorn status with a US$100 million funding. Online car marketplace Carro closed a US$360 million financing round led by SoftBank. Lastly, logistics startup Ninja Van received US$578 million investment from investors, including e-commerce giant Alibaba.

In turn, Singapore’s commercial property market could benefit from the booming tech industry.

As a matter of fact, a research jointly conducted by Temasek, Temasek, and Bain & Company, projects that the digital economy of Southeast Asia would surge by 3-fold to US$300 billion come 2025.

The growth of fintech in the ASEAN region has been astonishing, but it appears there’s still more room for growth.

In 2020, US$1.6 billion was invested in fintech startups in the region compared from merely US$0.2 billion in 2015. This 8-fold jump is attributed to offshore investors.

Aside from that, fintech is the segment among startups that received the biggest investment allocation from venture capital in the region. Based on a report by dealroom.co, the overall value of Southeast Asia’s startups hit US$108 billion in 2020.

Furthermore, there is a minimum of US$10 billion in unrealized value in VC-funded fintech startups in the region.