DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Launch of the Nanyang Frontier Fund

Ms Goh Swee Chen, Chair of NTU Board of Trustees,
Mr Tan Lip-Bu, Chairman of Walden International,
Professor Ho Teck Hua, President of NTU,
Professor Louis Phee, Vice-President of NTU,
Ladies and gentlemen,

A very good morning to all of you. I am glad to be back at NTU again to launch an exciting new platform – the Nanyang Frontier Fund.

This collaboration between NTU and Walden International will strengthen Singapore’s ecosystem in innovation, especially in deep tech.

I understand that Lip-Bu travelled back to Singapore specially for this launch. 

I thank him for spearheading and leading this initiative and for his many contributions to NTU and the wider research landscape here in Singapore, including as an NTU Trustee and in strengthening our capabilities in artificial intelligence and now venture-building.  

The launch of this Nanyang Frontier Fund to support deep tech startups, especially in their early and growth stages, is both well-named and well-timed.

Well-named, because deep tech is indeed the next great frontier in innovation.

By leveraging technological advances such as AI and quantum computing, deep tech can solve complex challenges and unlock new industries and value chains.

In Singapore, we are investing to harness the transformative power of deep tech in three ways.

One, to build future-ready industries and an innovative workforce as part of our ongoing economic transformation.

Two, to improve the lives of our people through scientific breakthroughs and new solutions in critical areas like climate change and healthcare.

Three, to strengthen our position as a Global-Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise, working with like-minded partners around the world to tackle common challenges like the green transition and aging populations.

This launch is also well-timed, because we have just concluded a busy and bustling week in our annual innovation calendar.

Last week, Enterprise Singapore and other partners convened the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology or SWITCH. 

Startups from all over the world gathered here to showcase their latest innovations spanning different domains. Global investors, research institutions, incubators and accelerators also participated. Deep tech was a major overarching theme for this year’s SWITCH.

I also met many VCs who are already investing in startups in Singapore and the region, as well as some who are keen to explore impactful investment opportunities.

They had very positive things to say about Singapore’s universities and the role they play in enabling deep tech startups.

In fact, one even told me that he teaches entrepreneurship and venture capital part-time at NTU!

Indeed, universities play a pivotal role in catalysing deep tech innovation.

Over the years, our universities in Singapore have invested in sharpening and strengthening their research capabilities.

This has built a strong base of excellent science to facilitate innovation.

For example, NTU has been ranked among the top in the world in disciplines such as electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, condensed matter physics and material sciences.

Other universities like NUS, SUTD, SMU and SIT have similarly earned global recognition in different areas and established their own niches of excellence.

By working with industry partners, universities can pave the way for greater translation of new scientific insights into practical solutions and real-world applications.

For example, through Corporate Labs, research talent in Singapore’s universities and research institutes apply themselves to industry-relevant problems. This allows them to test-bed new ideas and exposes them to a more entrepreneurial side of science and technology.

NTU itself plays host to a number of these Corporate Labs. In the past year, I launched NTU’s collaborations with global industry leaders like ExxonMobil and Alibaba as well as a homegrown unicorn Nanofilm. 

Teck Hua also heads up AI Singapore, which brings our universities and research institutes together to work on use-inspired AI research and product development.

To realise the full impact of innovation, universities must be proactive in bringing their breakthroughs and solutions to market.

This step – that leap to commercialisation and scale-up – is critical to completing the innovation loop.

As technological cycles shorten and disruption becomes more common, it is an area that other global innovation nodes like Oxford, Boston and the Bay Area are also paying greater attention to.

In Singapore, our ecosystem has seen some success in commercialising spinoffs from our universities.

For example, Nanofilm, Singapore’s first deep tech unicorn, began as a startup out of NTU 25 years ago in 1999.

Last year, Nanofilm came full circle, setting up a Corporate Lab with NTU to work on next-generation nanotechnology solutions.

There is more that we can, and must do, to accelerate the commercialisation of even more spinoffs from our universities and research institutes. We are putting in place the platforms to support this.

Last week, I announced the $50 million National Graduate Research Innovation Programme, or National GRIP.

This integrates two successful venture-building programmes from NUS and NTU to expand support and guidance for innovative startups from the wider Singapore ecosystem.

Over the past year, NTU and NUS have also been working with Temasek’s Xora Innovation to commercialise deep tech spinoffs – a meaningful partnership that has now brought A*STAR on board as well.

This Innovation Port where we are today is a further useful initiative by NTU, providing collaborative space for different stakeholders to come together and accelerate innovation.

I understand that you have a maker’s lab with a lead technologist to advise students and researchers on transitioning their inventions from prototype to market through pilot trials and validation.

The Nanyang Frontier Fund, established by NTU in partnership with Walden International, is another important addition to Singapore’s deep tech ecosystem.

I am encouraged to hear that you plan to focus your initial target of $50 million on areas such as biotech, machine learning, materials science, robotics, sustainability and environmental sciences.

These are all domains where we are already facing complex challenges, and where deep tech can yield impactful, cutting-edge solutions.

I am also glad that we are joined today by some of the Fund’s partner startups, engaged in medical robotics, cognitive disorder diagnosis and management, space solutions, industrial automation, digitalisation and decarbonisation.

I look forward to learning more about your interesting work later.

As Louis mentioned earlier, most deep tech innovations require extensive R&D and long development cycles before they are able to commercialise and scale. And indeed the government is committed to supporting our universities on research translation.

This requires not only patient capital, but also smart capital.

In partnering with an established VC which has built a portfolio across the US and Asia, the Nanyang Frontier Fund can tap on NTU’s technological expertise as well as the cross-regional and market insights of partners from Walden International.

This will provide startups with useful scaffolding, both on the research side as well as the business side.

Both are equally important in navigating the startup journey.

Additionally, this partnership should bring to the table not only financial capital, in the form of early-stage and growth-stage funding, but also network capital to help startups expand and scale.

The Chief Executive of a major investment firm once relayed to me wise advice he had received: “Knowledge is good, know-how is better, know-who is best”.

This is also true for startups.

Those who can link up with, and build, networks – with experienced mentors, like-minded collaborators, or other startups along the same value chain – will be best-positioned to keep innovating, expanding and growing.

Lip-Bu and his team bring with them experience from supporting similar funds in universities in the US.

So I encourage the Nanyang Frontier Fund to also tap on the combined networks of NTU and Walden International in ways that can better support startups and spinoffs.

As you grow towards your $50 million target and beyond, let me also make two brief suggestions for the Frontier Fund, and your partner startups, to consider in the longer term.

The first is to consider looking beyond NTU to engage with the wider deep tech ecosystem.

I earlier mentioned that other universities in Singapore like NUS, SMU, SUTD and SIT have all built niches of excellence, with their own pools of talent and innovation. In fact, we are funding quite a lot of basic research taking place across universities.

Fostering collaborative partnerships across institutions is critical to the success of Singapore’s research and innovation aspirations.

So I hope that in time, the Nanyang Frontier Fund can play an important role across our compact ecosystem by also enabling deep tech startups from different institutions.

The second is for the startups here today. I encourage you to consider how you can yourselves give back to NTU and the wider ecosystem as you grow and expand.

We should build a virtuous cycle in deep tech innovation  where one successful wave of innovation enables subsequent waves.

As you advance in your respective journeys, I hope that you take inspiration from NTU alumni like Lip-Bu and Nanofilm’s Prof Shi Xu to come back and support future startups with guidance, mentorship, industry linkages, and even catalytic capital.

Let me conclude. I commend NTU and Walden International once again for your partnership in setting up this new Nanyang Frontier Fund.

In particular, let me thank Lip-Bu and his associates for kickstarting the fund with a personal contribution of $5 million, and also for structuring the fund in such a way that 25% the profits from the fund would go back to NTU to support future startups.

Nurturing deep tech startups is more than just about building successful enterprises. It is also about positioning Singapore at the forefront of global innovation.

The Nanyang Frontier Fund can make valuable contributions by enabling potential solutions that shape a better future for people in Singapore, Asia and the rest of the world.

I hope that the launch of this fund marks a new chapter where innovative talent and ideas from NTU scales new frontiers. I also look forward to the exciting startups that will emerge, supported by this fund, in the years ahead. Thank you.

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