Brief: Singapore sets up new S$1b fund to commercialize promising tech

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• Singapore’s Intellectual Property Office (IPOS) and private equity firm Makara Capital Partners are setting up the Makara Innovation Fund, a S$1 billion (US$718 million) investment vehicle for companies with “globally competitive technologies.”
• The fund will invest between US$21.5 million and US$108 million in 10 or 15 startups in the next eight years.
• The initiative makes IPOS into a vehicle for commercializing Singapore’s intellectual property, a key mandate of the Committee on the Future Economy report and Singapore’s 2017 budget.
• Investors in Singapore have stressed the need for commercializing research and innovative technology to drive economic growth for the island nation.

Source: Bloomberg