iStart LITE Manpower Grant Up To SGD 250K

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is launching a pilot grant scheme that aims to encourage and assist Singapore-registered start-ups to accelerate technology commercialisation and go-to-market activities by leveraging internationally proven technologies. iStart:LITE (Leveraging International Technology for Entrepreneurship) will award up to SGD 250K (USD 192K) to technology startups to cover 3/4 of their manpower costs for up to a year.

Grant Calls

For the winners, IDA will co-fund up to 75% of salaries of qualified manpower for up to 1 year. The maximum grant amount to each company will be capped at S$250K, and qualified manpower can include at least 1 business development headcount for every 3 engineering headcounts.

For the first grant call, interested founders must indicate an expression of interest by submitting an executive summary by 15 December 2010. Interested founders are encouraged to send a draft proposal for discussion with IDA prior to formal submission. The second grant call is tentatively targeted to close within the first quarter of 2011.

Eligibility

Be incorporated and physically present in Singapore with at least 30% local ownership:

- Have not more than 25 employees
- Be registered for less than 3 years at time of application
- Be founded by either serial entrepreneurs or experienced infocomm professionals playing regional roles
- Comprise a team with strong business and technical balance
- Involve internationally proven technologies from foreign companies with good track record overseas or leading international technologies from reputable universities, research institutions and such in the proposed one-year project
- Provide a business plan with clear target markets and viable business models

Evaluation of Proposals

The proposals will be evaluated based on:

- Size of the target markets
- Innovativeness of the business
- Business viability
- Strength of the international technology and exclusivity (whether time-exclusive, region-exclusive or vertical-exclusive, etc.)
- Strength of founding entrepreneurs and proposed team
- Significance of the scope of the co-development work on top of the international technology
- Number of local capability developed within the company
- Impact of the proposed project to Singapore

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Grant Briefing

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iStart:LITE was just published yesterday night and IDA is conducting a briefing today before the AppVenture Launch.

When: Tuesday, 16th November 2010
Time: 5pm (expected to take only 30mins)
Where: IDA Multi-Purpose Hall, Suntec Tower 3, #14-00, 8 Temasek Boulevard, Singapore 038988

For all enquiries and submissions, please email Mr Derrick Wong at email: derrick_wong@ida.gov.sg, with the following subjects:
[iStart:LITE enquiry] or [iStart:LITE pre-submission discussion] or [iStart:LITE submission].

The key difference in this iStart:LITE grant is whether “you have a relationship to anchor an international technology to Singapore as a leverage for your business idea“?

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