: EnterpriseSG to boost support for Singapore firms; revenue up $14.5b among 2,300 helped in 2024
SINGAPORE – Shohei Ohtani is a global baseball star who plays in the US Major League. Since April 2024, he has also been representing a Singapore brand called Rapsodo.
The catch of one of the world’s biggest sports stars by a local sports technology firm arose from a business strategy review spurred by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) in 2023, which led the firm to go beyond the US and Japan markets and venture into Britain, Australia and Europe.
EnterpriseSG will double down on its efforts to nurture high-growth companies such as Rapsodo, as well as other local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which comprise over 99 per cent of the more than 300,000 enterprises in Singapore.
Its chairman, Mr Lee Chuan Teck, on Jan 23 highlighted the national agency’s need for tailored aid. High-potential companies are seeking more dedicated measures beyond subsidies, he noted.
This pledge comes as EnterpriseSG on Jan 23 reported that it had helped 11,500 enterprises in 2024. This surpasses the 9,300 figure in 2019, but falls below the average of 18,200 firms it helped annually between 2020 and 2023.
Among the companies that it supported, 2,300 implemented transformative projects, 500 fewer than in 2019 and 1,500 fewer than the average between 2020 and 2023.
Still, the transformation efforts added $14.5 billion in extra revenue and 12,300 jobs. These figures fall short of 2023’s $16.4 billion and 21,500 jobs.
Mr Lee said he wished more companies had come forward for transformative projects, but business costs and global volatility had diverted companies’ focus to immediate issues.
Among firms it helped to take on innovation projects, annual revenues were boosted by $10.2 million each, nearly double the $5.2 million in 2023.
Meanwhile, more than three in four of the 9,200 enterprises it helped to build capabilities and grow sales adopted more digitalisation in functions, such as accounting and sales, customer service and inventory management.
Mr Lee said: “It’s hard to find a benchmark that can be meaningfully used to compare us with anywhere else internationally. What we want is to do better each year.”
In 2025, EnterpriseSG will focus on internationalising local companies, collaborations between SMEs and larger companies, and supporting nascent sectors such as precision medicine and climate technology.
For instance, the agency will enhance the Scale-Up programme, which started in 2019 to help local companies to grow and expand globally.
The programme provides firms with access to management programmes and consultants to develop growth plans, among other forms of assistance.
Over 100 companies have benefited from Scale-Up so far. Firms that joined its first five cohorts had revenues grow by 36 per cent, or $2 billion, three years after joining. They also added $600 million in economic value and created nearly 800 jobs.
Integrated cleaning and waste management company Chye Thiam identified e-waste recycling as a new opportunity after completing the programme in 2019.
It went with EnterpriseSG to Saudi Arabia and Dubai to study these recycling hubs and their technology, and received funding.
Its spokesman, Mr Lee Neng Hao, said: “You are going to set up a brand new business and don’t know whether it will be successful or not.” The grants from EnterpriseSG lowered the risks and spurred it to make decisions faster, he said.
In 2021, the firm set up a subsidiary for its automated e-waste recycling facility in Tuas which can recycle 13,000 tonnes of large household appliances and electronic equipment annually, the equivalent of 115,000 refrigerators.
The 3,000-strong firm also hired 22 new workers. The growth added 40 per cent to its annual revenue, which rose from $84.5 million in 2021 to $118 million in 2023.
“Thanks to EnterpriseSG, we have moved on to become an early large local enterprise,” said Mr Lee Neng Hao, referencing the typical label for local firms with an annual revenue above $100 million.
EnterpriseSG said it will streamline processes and provide more tailored assistance to SMEs.
It announced on Sep 23, 2024, a new unit within the Government that seeks to reduce compliance work for SMEs, termed the SME Pro-Enterprise Office. It will focus on administrative requirements involving multiple public agencies or emerging business concepts where regulations may be complex or unclear.
The agency will also work with trade associations and chambers to bolster its SME Centres that now provide business guidance.
Processing times for its Productivity Solutions Grant applications have gone from three months to just two weeks, and it plans to extend similar efficiencies to other grant programmes.
From July 2025, a new digital platform that makes it easier for SMEs to tap government resources will be launched in phases, it said.
Mr Lee Chuan Teck said: “The new reality that we are living with is that global trade flows and investment flows will be increasingly regulated and taxed.
“Companies will have to adapt, and we want to encourage more companies, even as we help them navigate this, to continue to grow and transform.”
Mr Matthew Rigby, director of international markets at Rapsodo, whose head office is in Ayer Rajah, said EnterpriseSG’s Global Ready Talent scheme helped to provide the company with a pipeline of interns.
These include engineers, which make up a sizeable portion of its over 200-strong staff in four offices – 80 people in Singapore, and the rest in the US, Turkey and Japan.
He hopes to continue getting the agency’s in-market expertise as Rapsodo enters new markets.
The firm, which specialises in golf, baseball and softball analytics, credits the Scale-Up programme for helping it think big. It had then zeroed in on the Japanese star player to represent its brand.
“This is an important moment for Rapsodo,” he said. “Shohei Ohtani brings a lot of credibility to our brand, and we have seen a lot of benefits, even outside Japan.”
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.
