In Southeast Asia, opportunities continue to grow for start-ups. Fostering innovation is instrumental to the growth of businesses and the broader start-up ecosystem. Gaining access to local knowledge, regulatory know-how, and building relationships with local partners to efficiently scale are potential gains that can be achieved by being part of a start-up hub.

The shift from business transactions to building communities

It is crucial for start-ups, enablers, and venture capitalists to be plugged into a community that allows them to thrive in the long run. This was why JTC, a government agency in charge of Singapore’s industrial development, started LaunchPad. The goal? To provide a space that encourages collaboration and partnerships between like-minded businesses in their various growth stages.

Located at one-north and Jurong Innovation District, LaunchPad offers a total of 60,000sqm of modular units of varying sizes to suit the requirements of start-ups. This includes those from industries like advanced manufacturing and engineering, agri-food technology, biomedical sciences, infocomm technology and media, and urban solutions.

Besides reliable infrastructure, LaunchPad seeks to foster an atmosphere of vibrancy and community. There are multiple opportunities for partnerships, programming support through learning and networking events both offline and online, and various shared facilities.

“We not only aimed to develop hard infrastructure but also curate an ecosystem where start-ups can flourish,” explains Sophia Ng, Director of Infocomm Media and Start-up Cluster at JTC. “Overall, our journey has evolved from providing space and a playground for ideas to creating purposeful connections.”

A strong track record of housing innovators

Prolific names such as Carousell, a leading second-hand goods marketplace, and ShopBack, a shopping and rewards platform, are some of the start-ups that got their start at LaunchPad.

Other start-ups that currently reside in LaunchPad @ one-north include Motional (previously known as nuTonomy), a game-changer in self-driving technology; and Igloocompany, a start-up offering smart locks that work offline through unique PIN codes or Bluetooth.

But there’s space for more. “LaunchPad has the potential to house a wider variety of industries and ecosystem stakeholders going forward. Bigger VCs and start-ups may want to land in LaunchPad. This will promote more deal flows and better ideas with stronger collaborations between the relevant parties,” said James Tan, Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a trade association advocating start-ups’ interests and bridging communications between start-ups and the Singapore government.