Lack of funds for high-tech

The technopreneurial scene in Singapore has been abuzz with activity in the past five years, but a lack of external funding and intellectual property (IP) ownership continues to pose challenges to startups' growth, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Speaking at the opening of the Techventure 2011 conference on Thursday, a platform for budding entrepreneurs to meet investors, Mr. Teo provided a 500 people-strong audience at Marina Bay Sands with the state of technopreneurship in Singapore.

Citing figures culled from several Government departments, he said that close to 5,000 new high-tech firms have been registered in Singapore each year since 2006. These high-tech firms made up just under 10 percent of all new companies formed every year.

More than 60 percent of all new companies survived beyond the three-year mark, similar to survival rates in the US (59 percent) and the average across parts of Europe (60 percent).