UK’s Entrepreneur First brings its founder acceleration program to Singapore

There’s no shortage of accelerators, incubators, and other organizations that help startups get a leg up in Singapore. It’s easy to see why; Singapore’s entrepreneurship-friendly environment aside, the city-state has shown it knows how to make the most out of few resources. Startups and startup founders are the latest resource Singapore is looking to cultivate on its journey to becoming a Smart Nation.

One piece of that puzzle is an accelerator that does things differently. The concept behind UK-based Entrepreneur First (EF) is supporting individuals rather than fully-formed teams. Today, EF announced it has partnered with Singapore’s Infocomm Investments, the venture arm of the organization previously known as Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). Under the agreement, EF will open its first international office in Singapore.

EF is an accelerator that does things differently.

The partnership was announced at a launch event in London, by Singapore’s deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. “This partnership with Entrepreneur First is a win-win,” says the DPM, who is also coordinating minister for economic and social policies. “The current turbulence in financial markets doesn’t displace the longer term picture in Asia: its markets are expanding faster than the rest of the world, and its consumers will increasingly demand quality and innovative products. EF’s new presence in Singapore will help catalyze technology innovation to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Team building

The idea is giving technically-minded individuals the opportunity and the resources to become startup founders by alleviating a lot of the risks and taking care of the minutiae. A lot of promising talents never blossom into founders because they can’t find the right co-founders, they lack the necessary capital, or they don’t have any networks.

EF’s solution is to give them a working space, a monthly stipend (in Singapore this will be S$3,500, or US$2,440), and a period of three months to develop their idea, meet like-minded people, and form a company. Once that happens, the startup enters a second three-month phase, where the accelerator invests into it for an equity stake of eight percent. EF Singapore will invest S$25,000 (US$17,400) into each successfully formed startup.

The accelerator also takes care of evangelizing the startups to bigger players and investors, finding them customers, and building relationships with the greater ecosystem. Since 2013, about 50 companies have come out of the program in the UK, raising over US$60 million in venture capital.

EF Singapore will recruit 40-50 candidates for its first cohort, starting in September 2016.

“A founder can work full-time [on their idea] for a few months, and that can lead to a successful company,” EF co-founder Alice Bentinck and Singapore head Alex Crompton tell Tech in Asia. The company hopes to contribute to the changing status of the entrepreneur worldwide, but especially in this region. “We want to make this path seem as viable as a career at Goldman Sachs,” Alice says.

EF Singapore will recruit 40-50 candidates for its first cohort, starting in September 2016. Applications are already open.

“Singapore’s Smart Nation journey will require innovation to be part of everything we do,” says Steve Leonard, chairman of Infocomm Investments, in a statement. “One of our biggest priorities is to create new value by better translating the world class research and development in Singapore into greater commercial success. We believe Entrepreneur First’s model of working with deeply-technical individuals in Singapore will lift our already-vibrant startup ecosystem to a whole new level.”