Business social networking company BEAM has partnered with early-stage venture capital TRi5 Ventures to launch VentureStart, an entrepreneurial development programme that brings more support to budding entrepreneurs building startups in Singapore.
It is conducted on a rolling basis where entrepreneurs are supported throughout the idea/prototyping, go-to-market, fundraising, and expansion stages of their ventures.
Ultimately, the two entities aim to produce 20 new Singapore-based startups in the next 12 months.
Under this partnership, first-time Singaporean entrepreneurs will be granted up to $50,000 early stage financing.
Known as the SG Startup Co-Investment Grant (SG Founders Grant), this grant is a combination of a $30,000 grant from SPRING Singapore, and up to $20,000 equity investment from TRi5 Ventures.
Mentorship Is Essential For Startups To Grow
New startups will also have access to a holistic support system that covers business and technical support, mentoring, community events, financing, market access, customer acquisition and media coverage.
Specifically, BEAM will tap into TRi5’s pool of over 60 mentors from the NEXT50 initiative.
These mentors and industry experts have startup background experiences who will help to provide guidance, insights, and support to entrepreneurs out there.
Christopher Quek, managing partner of TRi5 Ventures, said that it is increasingly getting essential for startups to get mentorship so they can “get up to speed and be globally competitive from day one.”
“The imparting of knowledge and the sharing of experiences, especially during the early stages, are essential in building startups with a solid foundation. With a wide range of mentors from across industries on board, we are certain that the startup founders will benefit more from a variety of quality perspectives,” he added.
Kenneth Ho, CEO of BEAM, also said that since entrepreneurship is a long and lonely journey, this holistic support system will greatly benefit startup founders.
“We believe this will bring tremendous value for the many new and aspiring entrepreneurs building startups [and] we hope that this raises the overall calibre of entrepreneurs and bring forth a new generation of innovative and transformational companies.”
Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post
