The Female Founders Singapore Startup Ecosystem Overview.

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

[email protected]

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.


*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.


Intro to the Singapore landscape


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


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)


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


1.Female Entrepreneurs you need to know in Singapore


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

11

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


12

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

13

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


VCs that have invested the most in female-led companies based in Singapore

15

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


Women VCs in Singapore

Carmen YuenVertex Venture Holdings

Monica TsaiSingtel Innov8

Ventures

Hui Hsing MaTVM Capital

Christina Teo Capital Pte

Rina NeohMercatus Capital


16

Shirley WongTNF Ventures

Soo Boon KohiGlobe Partners

Soo Ping YongWalden

International

Evie ZhangVertex Venture Capital

Kris LeongWalden Intl

VCs in Singapore employing women analysts


18

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


Co-Working Spaces

20

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


Co-Working Spaces

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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


Co-Working Spaces

22


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


Women Networks


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


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



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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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


Sue AdamsBamboo. Coach/facilitator, Leadership development

Leading minds & enablers across the tech ecosystem

Aliza KnoxTwitter

28

Joanna CatalanoGoogle

Lena GohIDA Singapore


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


For more information visit:www.femalefounders.com


The Female Founders Singapore Startup Ecosystem Overview.

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