We have spoken to many hundreds of startup business ventures in Singapore over the years and we have collected a list of what we think are the best and most useful legal resources that we think would be useful for startup founders. Do share the list with your friends and if you have any other resources, links or Q&A questions that you think may be useful for your startup friends, please leave a comment below so we can look at it.
Startup business owners in Singapore face a flood of information online and are sometimes overwhelmed. This article aims to provide a shortlist of useful legal resources for overworked founders.
Resource #1: Singapore Venture capital legal precedents
Singapore like Silicon Valley has come up with a set of base venture capital documents that are used by startups. This set of agreements was jointly developed by law firms and the Singapore Venture Capital Association. The documents are well drafted but if you need legal help to edit/amend them, do contact us.
https://www.svca.org.sg/publications/vima-kit
Resource #2: FAST Agreement
Many startups usually have an issue figuring out how to remunerate advisers. This adviser agreement created by the Founders’ Institute helps solve this issue.
Resource #3: Startup Investment from Enterprise Singapore
Many startups always wonder where to get co-investment funding from the Singapore government. Please see the website below. Note that as with most other Singapore grants, generally you would need to have at least 30% Singaporean Shareholding before such grants are open to your startup.
https://www.enterprisesg.gov.sg/financial-assistance/investments/investments/seeds-capital/overview
Resource #4: Tech Pass
TechPass is a Singapore visa for 2021 that allows a company to bring good tech talent to Singapore and individuals can apply for the pass directly. Large PRC tech firms like Alibaba, Tencent, Bytedance are taking advantage of this and moving some of their tech talent to Singapore.
https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/how-we-help/incentives-and-schemes/tech-pass.html
Resource #5: Angel Investors
Some times we have an idea but need a small investment to get it off the ground. This is where angel investors come in.
Here are a few good angel investment groups to pitch your startup idea to:
Resource #6: University Incubator List
Many first time entrepreneurs need some handholding and a network of potential investors to pitch to, so it would be useful for startup founders to be incubated by one of the following:
https://enterprise.nus.edu.sg/ – NUS Enterprise is the largest Incubator with the largest number of startups in Singapore and regionally under its Block27 incubator.
https://iie.smu.edu.sg/incubator SMU Incubator is a good incubation programme that is based in town in Singapore.
https://entrepreneurship.sutd.edu.sg/incubate/ SUTD has an incubation arm that looks at growing promising startups.
https://www.ntuitive.sg/ This is the incubator arm of NTU and has offices in NTU and Block 27.
Resource #7: The Startup Eco-System set up by Enterprise Singapore
Singapore has a strong and vibrant funding eco-system so as a startup it would be good for you to look at this portal to see if you can find potential incubators and VCs to invest in your next big idea.
Founders of startups are very busy so we have deliberately looked for the best startup related resources and kept this list short. Do leave a comment below if you have any questions or comments to our list. If you know of a good resource to be added our resource list do also leave a comment below.
https://www.SingaporeLegalPractice.com is a corporate law and commercial law education website headquartered in Singapore which aims to demystify business law and 新加坡商业法 for SME Company Owners, Startup Founders and 新加坡新移民老板。The information provided on this website does not constitute legal advice. Please go to our contact us page and contact us and we will arrange for a lawyer to speak to you. Please obtain specific legal advice from a lawyer before taking any legal action. Although we try our best to ensure the accuracy of the information on this website, you rely on it at your own risk.
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