$38 M fund launched by NTU Singapore, Walden International to support deep tech startups
A new venture capital fund is being established by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and international venture capital (VC) firm Walden International to support the university’s deep tech spin-offs.
The two said in a statement on Monday that the fund, which is called the Nanyang Frontier Fund, has an initial target amount of S$50 million ($37.94 million). It should be mentioned that Singapore’s first university-focused venture capital fund is the Nanyang Frontier Fund. To launch the fund, Walden International Chairman Tan Lip-Bu and his colleagues are investing S$5 million ($3.79 million), with NTU contributing an additional S$5 million ($3.79 million).
Tan is a well-known venture capitalist with nearly forty years of experience in the technology sector. Forbes has dubbed him the “pioneer of Asian VC” for bringing the US venture capital model to Asia, and he has played a key role in the success of many international tech startups.
“We are very fortunate to have the strong backing of Lip-Bu in the establishment of our first venture capital fund. His global experience will be invaluable not just in the NTU entrepreneurship eco-system but also in Singapore,
“Lip-Bu has had a long relationship with the University, from the days when he was a student at Nanyang University in the 1970s. He was also a Trustee of NTU from 2006 to 2011 and he has been following NTU’s rapid rise in global prominence in science and technology,” said NTU President Prof Ho Teck Hua.
According to Tan, he has a sizeable stake in venture capital funds that support faculty and student research at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
“I am also instrumental in helping to commercialize their ideas into successful businesses. Moreover, I am very actively involved as investor, board member, and mentor with more than two dozen startups founded by university faculty members and students that focus on disruptive and innovative technology in sectors including deep tech, GenAI, and Al-driven drug discovery, such as SambaNova Systems, Snorkel, Lion Semiconductor, Virtue AI, Greenstone Biosciences, Artera.ai, Together.ai, and Exostellar.”
“I strongly believe Nanyang Frontier Fund can identify startups of disruptive technology from NTU and Singapore, and it can nurture and scale them to become Singapore-based global companies,” he added.
Tan has invested in and developed cutting-edge technology companies through his leadership at Walden International and other endeavors. He has assisted these companies in raising billions of dollars in capital funding and growing their businesses across a variety of technology sectors, such as cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductors. Tan gave his alma mater S$3 million ($2.28 million) in June of this year to establish a new AI professorship to aid research.
