How these Singaporean tech firms are taking innovation to the next level

Singapore’s reputation as a tech and startup hub is indisputable. The city-state is home to successful Southeast Asian tech companies like Sea Group and Grab, and many multinational tech firms, such as Google and Facebook, have set up their regional headquarters on the island as well.

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It’s created a vibrant tech scene, one buoyed by strong government support and growing demand for digital solutions. But this is highly dependent on the ability of the country’s tech companies to continually innovate, seize new growth opportunities, and bring in the right talent.

However, pursuing innovation – and keeping at it – can be challenging. Fortunately, Singapore has a wealth of resources that firms can tap into to build their digital capabilities and fuel their growth, and government agencies are working hand-in-hand with the tech industry to help companies access the support they need.

Here are three tech companies that have overcome the barriers to take their innovations to the next level.

1. AiDA: Accelerating internal work processes for insurers

Tan Geok Leng, co-founder and CEO of AiDA / Photo credit: AiDA

The insurance industry is ripe for transformation, with technologies such as AI and machine learning potentially having a large impact. From manual claims processes to heightened concerns around fraud and misconduct, a number of roadblocks hold insurance companies back, preventing them from working more efficiently and creating optimized user experiences for customers.

AiDA Technologies saw an opportunity to make a difference. The AI and machine learning startup launched a suite of services and technologies to streamline processes – such as insurance claim reviews and payouts – and help insurance companies and other financial institutions address these pain points.

However, while AiDA had a strong core team of data scientists, it initially struggled to gain deeper insights into the insurance industry. This know-how was necessary to make sure its product truly met the needs of insurance companies.

From the perspective of Tan Geok Leng, the firm’s co-founder and CEO, developing a solution that would be both practical and impactful required a deep understanding of the domain and business requirements.

In a bid to address this, AiDA sought support from Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), a joint office of the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore, and the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), which drives Singapore’s tech sector by leveraging resources and programs across agencies to help tech companies. Its assistance extends to supporting companies and facilitating partnerships in areas such as research & development, product innovation, as well as ecosystem development.

Through conversations with DISG, AiDA gained a deeper understanding of the insurance landscape and tapped into available grants to grow its business. The firm benefited from grants such as IMDA’s Advanced Digital Solutions (ADS) Grant, which helps businesses develop their digital capabilities, upon the recommendation of DISG.

With the help it received, AiDA successfully launched its Claims Nexus platform in 2021, a one-stop hub for health insurance claims that aims to transform the way the insurance sector works.

“As a startup with limited financial resources, access to such support has enabled AiDA to invest resources to develop a commercial product and move toward our goal of making our Claims Nexus platform self-sustaining,” says Tan. “We have also been able to seed and onboard the initial batch of insurers and insurance providers onto the platform.”

2: I-Sprint: Building trust and identity assurance for businesses

Dutch Ng, co-founder of i-Sprint / Photo credit: i-Sprint

In the late 1990s, Dutch Ng and his co-founder Albert Ching saw an impending demand for identity and access management (IAM) solutions while working in the applications and security management department at Citibank, the corporate banking division of financial services multinational Citigroup.

Driven by this idea, the pair sought to create a solution that would help individuals, organizations, and societies build trust and identity assurance to power productivity gains. The pair launched i-Sprint in 2000 to do just that.

The firm started with a cybersecurity IAM solution that would support companies in managing user identities and access control to enterprise resources and services, catering to over 100 financial institutions in the region. It then launched an “identity of things” solution to aid companies in brand protection and track and trace their products in the supply chain.

However, as consumer behavior shifted, so did cloud, social, mobile, and information technologies. I-Sprint was well aware of the need to continually innovate and launch new services.

To do so, the firm reached out to DISG, which helped i-Sprint map out its challenges and business needs and connected it to relevant government agencies that could support it on its growth journey. The company is currently participating in IMDA’s Spark Program, which will help enhance its capabilities through access to government tools and opportunities and allow it to connect with a broader network of customers.

The firm also received opportunities to showcase its offerings at events such as Innovfest Unbound, one of the largest startup innovation events in Asia, at the invitation of DISG.

“Working with DISG has played a huge role in our business expansion, as well as our business growth and capability building,” says Ng. “It has allowed us to better meet the present needs of our customers and confidently create solutions to meet their future needs.”

3. Ascentis: Powering CRM and loyalty for brands

Bryan Tan, co-founder and CEO of Ascentis / Photo credit: Ascentis

In 2003, Ascentis launched its offering as a way for cybercafes and family arcade centers to manage their billings through stored-value smart cards. It eventually evolved into a customer relationship management (CRM) and loyalty solution, addressing a growing demand for CRM services.

“There are businesses grappling with too many system touch points and data overload and are looking to make sense of the data for better business decisions. Customers can rely on the Ascentis platform to automate these executions,” says Bryan Tan (no relation to AiDA’s Tan Geok Leng), co-founder and CEO of Ascentis.

In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in enterprise digitalization, Tan and his team decided to transform Ascentis into a product-based company, moving away from the systems integration work it had been doing previously.

To do so, the firm is currently developing AscentisCX. The AI and machine learning-enabled platform aggregates all its products into one platform, allowing clients to manage their customer relationship campaigns in one place and enabling them to accelerate and simplify their decision-making processes.

In pursuit of this goal, however, Ascentis struggled to find the right resources to help fuel its growth. It turned to DISG to gain a better understanding of the support that was available to them.

“DISG took every effort to understand in detail our innovation aspirations, including our challenges, and was able to provide advice and market validations to help us in our planning,” shares Tan. “Aside from linking us up with potential talent, it also pointed us to the right grants to help us build new in-house capabilities in machine learning.”

This has driven the growth of Ascentis’ platform, especially as it works toward developing new products and breaking into the B2B2C space.

“Instead of taking three to four years to complete the development of our AI and ML functions, we’re now working on a one to two-year timeline,” says Tan. “This helps us create more solutions that will help businesses address their pain points and improve processes.”

Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) is a joint office of the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore, and Info-communications Media Development Authority, established to support the growth of the technology sector in Singapore.

Learn more about DISG on its website.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.