the female founders singapore startup ecosystem overview
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PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview
November 26th, 2015
www.femalefounders.comResearch - Policy - Advocacy 1
About this overviewSingapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview is work in progress with an aim of representing the true market opportunity.
We see this as an opportunity to crowdsource and request you to contribute additional female entrepreneurs and ecosystem players. Please submit your suggestions to
Thank you for your support.
DISCLAIMER: Although Female Founders takes every reasonable step to ensure that the information thus compiled and/or collected is accurately reflected in this overview, Female Founders: (i) provide the Data “as is, as available” and without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement; (ii) make no representations, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the Data contained in this Report or its suitability for any particular purpose; (iii) accept no liability for any use of the said Data or reliance placed on it, in particular, for any interpretation, decisions, or actions based on the information in this overview.
2Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Goals of the Singapore Ecosystem OverviewThe Female Founder’s ecosystem overview offers insights into the entrepreneurs, investors, networks, and coworking spaces of the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship decision-makers in Singapore. This research-driven document aims at:
Understanding the changing ecosystem of the female entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in Singapore.
Identify and improve visibility of female entrepreneurs and the supporting ecosystem in Singapore with media, VCs in order to increase gender equality.
Plan effective policy and advocacy programs to engage the ecosystem against unconscious gender bias.
3Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
*Entrepreneurs are defined by the OECD as individuals who display the readiness to take risks with new or innovative ideas to generate new products or services and are involved in the day-to-day running of the company to differentiate them from mere financiers such as business angels, shareholders, silent partners etc.
Contents
IntroductionSupporting Ecosystem: Key players
FemaleEntrepreneurs*in Singapore
Female VCs and VC’s investing in female-led companies
1. 2. 3. 4.
4Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Intro to the Singapore landscape
5Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Why this overviewBusinesses with women do better but women receive a fraction of VC funds1.
Women entrepreneurs report average annual sales of USD 9.1 million versus men at USD 8.4 million. 2
1 Data referring to enterpreneurs in 17 countries (BNP) or teh US (Babson College). 2 Data BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneurialism Report3 Women Entrepreneurs 2014: Bridging the Gender Gap in Venture Capital, Babson College
Companies with women CEO only receive 3% of VC dollars (1.5bil. Out of 50.8 bil.) 3
Businesses with a woman executive team are more likely to have higher valuations at both 1st and last funding (64% higher and 49% higher) 3
6Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Why SingaporeSingapore’s entrepreneurship ecosystem offers favourable conditions but women don’t fully reap its benefits
52% of start-up founders1 in SG hold a Master’s or PHD. (vs. 42% in SV & 49% in TA2 ) 3
32% of founders are serial entrepreneurs.(vs. 56% in SV & 47% in TA) 3
Average age of founders in
Singapore is 33. 3
1,400 tech-enabled
start-ups and 2,400 people are currently estimated to be in the Singapore ecosystem3.
Singapore is ranked 17th on the Global Start-up Ecosystem Index as the first city from Asia.4 (The list is toped by SV, TA and Los Angeles.)
1Refers to tech-enabled start-ups.2SV and TA are abbreviations of Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.3PWC Study, Singapore’s tech-enabled start-up ecosystem, March 2015.4Start-upGenome, Start-up Ecosystem Report 2014.5Mastercard Index of Women Advancement 2015.‘
42.1 is the proportion of
female to every 100 male business owners.5 (Australia 50.6, , Japan 20.6, New Zealand 43.7, Philippines 36.4, Vietnam 42, Thailand 32.9)
7Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
How Singapore compares
5%
10%
Singapore
Silicon Valley
Singapore
US
7.9%
16.6%
Philippines Singapore
Ranked 7 Ranked 54
Percentage of women
entrepreneurs in tech-enabled
start-ups1
Percentage of women members on corporate boards2
Gender Gap Ranking3
1 PWC Study, Singapore’s tech-enabled start-up ecosystem, March 20152 Catalyst.org and Board Agender Singapore3 Global Gender Gap report , WEF, 2015
8Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
1.Female Entrepreneurs you need to know in Singapore
9Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Female founded companies that have been acquired
Alexis HorowitzLuxola
Claire MulaSprooki
*Alphabetical order by first name
Lim Qing RuZopim Shao Ning
JobsCentral
Amelia ChenLoveByte
Althea LimGushcloud
Daphne TeoBigDeal
Elfaine TanEK Media
Angeline ThamSoldgers
Kate TanEriin
Kinerit KarinSingapore DIne
Maisha MirandaEriin
Nicole YeeCozyCot Qiuyan Tian
SoldgersZhi Min Seetoh
Indieescapes
Elaine LorTech Sailor
Gwendolyn Tan
SG Entrepreneurs
Pranoti N CTO- Rotimatic
Roshni MahtaniCEO- Tickled
Media
Rosaline KooCEO- CXA
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Entrepreneurs leading fast-growth businesses in Singapore
Yiping GohCEO - All Deals Asia
Teo Jia EnCOO-
Roomorama
Tan Hooi Ling Cofounder -
GrabTaxiSashim
ParmanandCEO - One Animation
Charlene Koh
CMO - Paktor
Grace ParkChairman - Doc
Doc
Emily HamiltonMD - Bellabox
Kersie KohCreative Director
- Clozette
Norma SitCEO - Numoni
Deborah WeeHead of ops -
HipVan
Amanda ErnstCEO Duriana
Lynette SeahCEO - Alpha7 Consultancy
Stephanie ChaiCEO - Luxenomad
Veronica ChewCMO - Healint
*Alphabetical order by first name, Entrepreneurs have raised over $1m USD VC Funding
Joya ZhaoCofounder - iCarsClub
Jeeta Bandopadhyay
Cofounder - Tookitaki
Shagufta AnuraqCofounder- Livspace
Jamie TeoCofounder - 12 Cupcakes
Guan DianVP - Patsnap
Lyn LeeAwfully Chocolate
Olivia LumHyflux
*Alphabetical order by first name
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Business trailblazers
Elim Chew77th Street
Cynthia ChuaSpa Esprit
Group
…and more to come
Claire ChiangBanyan Tree Hotels
and Resorts
Viola TanLove Bonito
Christina OngClub 21
Goh Soo KimSingapore Dance
Theatre
Janice Wong2am
Leaena TambyahAWWA
Rachel LimLove Bonito
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
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Infocus: Olivia Lum; Hyflux A keen knack for finding opportunity combined with the entrepreneurial spirit to work it through has been the constant theme in Olivia Lum’s rags to riches story.
As a child, she performed odd jobs, but chiefly sold fruits, sandwiches, ice cream, and even pairs of jeans upon recognising the demand for these items among her schoolmates. By the time she was nine, she was the sole breadwinner of her adoptive family.
At 16, and with only $15 to her name, Olivia left her small town in Perak, Malaysia to study university in Singapore. She continued to peddle various items to make ends meet, but this time used her earnings to set up a partnership venture after discovering another need: to operate canteens at construction sites.
During the mid-1980s, Olivia had to bank the entrepreneurial fire as she faced economic recession. Armed with an honors degree in chemistry from the National University of Singapore, she instead took on work as a lab chemist at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals. There, however, she chanced upon another potential business: a water treatment and recycling facility in water-scarce Singapore.
So in 1989, at age 28, Olivia took the biggest plunge: she left her well-cushioned job and then sold her apartment and car. She used the money raised to build her own water treatment company.
What started out with three employees selling water treatment systems grew into a million-dollar company in five years. Olivia’s company became the market leader in water treatment systems, thanks to the membrane technology she brought into Singapore in 1993.
Eight years later in January 2001, Hyflux became the first water treatment company to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Today, the company boasts more than 2,000 employees worldwide and Hyflux membranes can be found installed in over 400 locations globally.
2. VCs in Singapore: Investing in women and employing senior women
14Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
VCs that have invested the most in female-led companies based in Singapore
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Investors No. of Portfolio Companies
No. of Female Founded Portfolios
Female Founder CEO
Capital Injected
LionRock Capital 6 4 (66%) 2 $3m-$4m
Vertex Ventures 6 4 (66%) 1 above $10m
Tigris Capital 10 3 (30%) 3 under $1m
Golden Gate 13 3 (23%) 2 $3m-$4m
Wavemaker 28 6 (21%) 1 $2.5m
Jungle Ventures 24 4 (17%) 1 unknown
500 Startups 20 3 (15%) 1 under $1m
*Source: press releases, public information and company websites
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Women VCs in Singapore
Carmen YuenVertex Venture Holdings
Monica TsaiSingtel Innov8
Ventures
Hui Hsing MaTVM Capital
Christina Teo Capital Pte
Rina NeohMercatus Capital
*Alphabetical order by first name
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Shirley WongTNF Ventures
Soo Boon KohiGlobe Partners
Soo Ping YongWalden
International
Evie ZhangVertex Venture Capital
Kris LeongWalden Intl
VCs in Singapore employing women analysts
17Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
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Infocus: Jenny Lee; GGV Capital Forty-two-year-old Jenny Lee is quite easily one of the most respected figures in the world of China’s tech start-ups. Managing Partner at the venture firm GGV Capital, Lee is said to have the Midas touch. In nearly a decade with the firm, she has invested in over 30 companies, which include many of the biggest and brightest stars of China’s tech world. Her investments in China include YY, the US$3 billion social network; the country’s largest mobile browser UC Web; online shopping behemoth Alibaba and the rapidly growing phone company, Xiaomi. Unlike the legendary fictional character, Lee’s ability to turn everything she touches into gold is not down to a boon or a fluke. It is, in fact, rooted in years of on-ground experience and tenacity. Born in Singapore to a school teacher dad and a homemaker mum, Lee left the country in 1991 to study electrical engineering at Cornell University. She came back to Singapore briefly to work for Singapore Technologies Aerospace, before leaving again – this time to get her MBA at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. While the MBA may have strengthened Lee’s business and financial acumen, it is her engineering degree and experience working as a jet engineer that equipped her with two of the most important skills that underpin her success as an investor -- understanding of commercialization of technology and ability to recognize where business disruptions can occur. Lee has figured in the Forbes magazine Global Top 100 VC Midas list every year since 2011. In 2015 Lee is listed as the top female venture capitalist and figures as #10 on the Midas list -- the first time a woman has broken into the top 10.
3. Supporting Ecosystem for Female Entrepreneurs in Singapore
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Co-Working Spaces
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Company Address Features Founder
176 Joo Chiat Rd, #02-01, S427447 For women only Michaela Anchan
Claymore Connect442 Orchard Road, #03-01
Singapore 238879 Day-care providedRachel Teo, Elisabeth Wu, Tjin Lee, Elaine
Kim
531 Upper Cross Street, #03-11,
S050531For women only Zenn
75 High Street, S179435 Good locationLots of space Tony Chen
128 Prinsep Street #01-01
S188655Community driven
environment. Grace Sai, Gouri
Mirpuri
71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, S139951
Suitable for tech startups
24-hour accessNUS Enterprise
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Co-Working Spaces
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Company Address Features Founder
71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #05-16, S139951
Inhouse cafe with social and networking events
Hugh Mason Meng Wong
62 Ubi Rd 1, Oxley Bizhub 2, #10-08, S408734 Suitable for artists Sheau Chan,
Erika Tsirtsakis
2 Veerasamy Rd, S207305 Suitable for entrepreneursInternal community forum
Ben Gattie,Y.C. Teo, Saranta Gattie
70A Bussorah Street, S199483 Suitable for tech startupsChua Ruiwen, Wong Meng Weng, Luther Goh, and Justin Lee.
3 Raffles Place, Bharat Building, #07-01, S048617
8 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 1, #07-04, S018960
137 Market Street, Levels 5, 6 and 15, S 048943
For the frequent travelerOffices in 3000 locations
across 120 countries
Douglas Sutherland
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Co-Working Spaces
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Company Address Features Founder
883 North Bridge Rd, S198784 Swim and gym facilities
16 Purvis St, S188595 Suitable for professional companies Markus Kaub
115 King George’s Avenue, S208561 Suitable for woodcrafters Bu Shukun
1A Keong Saik Rd, S089109 Great for Entrepreneurs Ben Gattie,Y.C. Teo, Saranta Gattie
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Women Networks
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Media
Bernard Leong
Analyse Asia
Jacquelyn Cheok
Business Times
Joji Thomas Philip
DealStreetAsia
Benjamin Cher
Digital News Asia
Andrew RothDigital Frontiers
Iris Leunge27
Jon RussellTechCrunch
Terence LeeTech In Asia
Debbie LeeTech Storm
Grace ChngThe Straits Times
Jacky YapVulcan Post
Newley PurnellWall Street
Journal
Eileen YuIndependent
Micheal MontgomeryVenture Beat 24
Janine SteinContentAsia
Jiezhen Wu The Hidden Good
Li Lin Wong 2 Minutes Today
Jackie YeoLady Boss
*Alphabetical order by first name
Karishma Vaswani
BBC
Amrita KaurTabla
Victoria HoMashable
Professional services & accounting
Caroline BakerOrangeField
Namita SethiFuture Books
Mag KwanSKI Management Vincent Lim
Prudential Assurance
Juanita SabapathyKolibri
Sze YingPro 1 Management
Consultants
25
*Alphabetical order by first name
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Legal
Teresa O’ConnorInfinitus
Terk Yang LeeFlint & Battery
Stefanie Yuen Thio TSMP Law
See Kiat TohGoodwins
Karen NgDragon Law
Lee BagshawSimmonds Stewart
Koh Chia Ling Bird & Bird
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*Alphabetical order by first name
Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
Hooi Yen ChinPolaris Law Corp
Coaching and Training
27
Grace ClaphamThe Change
School
Sidhi DihirTiE Singapore
Aziza SheerinGeneral
Assembly
Fazil MusaExtraordinary Women of
Today
Yasmine KhaterTranspiral
Ayla KrembCoach
Angela OgnevRedesign Happy
Christina AnderssonHyper Island
*Alphabetical order by first name
Sue AdamsBamboo. Coach/facilitator, Leadership development
Leading minds & enablers across the tech ecosystem
Aliza KnoxTwitter
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Joanna CatalanoGoogle
Lena GohIDA Singapore
*Alphabetical order by first name
Minister Grace Fu
MCCY
Dr. Helmut SchutteInsead
Dr. Meri RosichFemale Founders
Samridhi SinghEndeavour
Kashmira Chawak
Female FoundersLorena SanchosFemale Founders
Dr. Supriti BFemale Founders
Katarina Hasbani
Female Founders
Sonya MadeiraRice
Communications
Waki YeneokaMeMom
Ayeesha KhannaThe Keys Academy
Kristine LauriaWalkabout Singapore
Anne SaladoAWS
Doina PaliciAXA Insurance
Nadine YapTemasys
Krystal ChooWander
Phalgun RajuMorph Ventures
Infocus: Mouna Auri; Woomentum
A civil engineer’s startup is building bridges for women entrepreneurs in Asia. Mouna Auri’s crowdsourcing platform, Woomentum, offers the space where women entrepreneurs share their challenge, give support, receive support, inspire each other and solve each other’s problems. Woomentum combines crowdsourcing + Human to Human Power + the Her to Her effect.
Think of Woomentum as a place where you can ask a question and get an answer by female experts out there. A platform that makes expertise affordable, showcase the best of female entrepreneurs and taps into the deep knowledge of experts in a host of different fields.
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Incubators
30
Elaine KimCrib
Hugh MasonJFDI Lily Chan
NUS EnterpriseDr Lim Jui
NTU Innovation
Dr Francis YeohMediaprenuer
Chua Boon PingSPH Media Fund
Joseph ZeiglerMuru-D
Grace SaiPACT Incubator
Co-FoundersDr. Meri RosichRoshni Mahtani
Singapore Executive CommitteeAdvocacy - Joanna CatalanoMembership - Kashmira ChawakPolicy - Katarina Uherova HasbaniPublic relations - Sonya MadeiraPublications - Dr. Supriti BezbaruahResearch - Waki YoneokaSpecial Projects - Lorena Espi Sancho
Published by Female Founders on:November 26th 2015Updated May 30th 2016
LocationsSINGAPORETOKYOSAN FRANCISCOSYDNEY
www.femalefounders.com
We are an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting gender equality in entrepreneurship and leadership through research, policy and advocacy action.
We aim to help accelerate the female founders ecosystem in Singapore by increasing from 5% to 20% the female funded startups by 2020.
We would like to thank our contributors:Arnaud Bonzom, Darius Cheung, Florian Cornu
31Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com
For more information visit:www.femalefounders.com
32Singapore’s Female Entrepreneurs Ecosystem Overview - Research - Policy - Advocacy - November 26th, 2015 - www.femalefounders.com