Investors at this year’s Singapore Fintech festival have committed more than $12bn (£9.2bn, €10.4bn) to Association of southeast Asian nations (Asean) enterprises, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Mas) has announced.
Mas said that Match (Meet Asean’s Talents and Champions), the event’s deal-making platform, has already secured $6.2bn for Asean enterprises over the next year, since its launch in May, with a further $6bn earmarked for the following two years.
Powered by Ernst & Young (EY), the platform was designed to connect rising Asean enterprises with global private equity and venture capital.
A good Match
More than 17,000 ‘matches’ have been made between the 380 investors and 840 enterprises, with around 60% of the investment allocation going to Fintech, healthcare and other technology sectors, including medical, information and communications.
Jacqueline Loh, deputy managing director at Mas, said: “The 2018 Match exercise demonstrates the upward momentum in both the supply of and demand for growth capital in Asean.
“The interest of the global investment community in our region is promising. Match presents a great opportunity to ensure that private capital is deployed towards the development of promising Asean enterprises.”
Thriving start-up landscape
Max Loh, managing partner at EY Asean and Singapore, added that Asean had a thriving startup and entrepreneurial landscape, though accessing funding opportunities and connecting with the right investors had been challenging – but Match had assisted it in the process.
The latest addition to the Singapore Fintech festival – the Global Investor Summit – will take place on 13-14 November 2018 and is targeted at both investors and enterprises.
