{"id":1263,"date":"2014-11-04T11:29:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T03:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=1263"},"modified":"2014-11-04T11:29:26","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T03:29:26","slug":"journey-singapore-startup-ecosystem-florian-cornu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/journey-singapore-startup-ecosystem-florian-cornu\/","title":{"rendered":"A journey into the Singapore startup ecosystem with Florian Cornu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1264\" src=\"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-majuven-VC-1-300x300.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-majuven-VC-1-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-majuven-VC-1-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-majuven-VC-1-55x55.jpg 55w, http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-majuven-VC-1.jpg 500w\" alt=\"florian cornu singapore startup scene tech ecosystem evolution flocations jfdi startup weekend hackerspace SG TNF Ventures matching scheme MAVA We are CXO South-East Asia startups emerging markets martin pasquier majuven VC 1\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/>For the Coursera MOOC I&rsquo;m\u00a0following on \u00ab\u00a0<a title=\"Beyond Silicon Valley\" href=\"https:\/\/class.coursera.org\/entpecon-002\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond Silicon Valley\u00a0\u00bb<\/a>, I had to interview a local entrepreneur to better understand the concept of a startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>Living and working in Singapore for two years now, I chose to interview\u00a0<strong><a title=\"Florian Cornu\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/floriancornu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florian Cornu<\/a>,<\/strong> whose experience started with\u00a0corporate innovation finance industry beforehand in London for <strong>AXA<\/strong>. He then came to <strong>Singapore<\/strong> to build a team around a project during a Startup Weekend, got <strong>accelerated<\/strong> at <a title=\"JFDI\" href=\"http:\/\/jfdi.asia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JFDI<\/a>, South-East Asia most reputed accelerator, and is now <strong>entrepreneur-in-residence<\/strong> at one of the biggest VC in Singapore. He is also running a consulting activity with <a title=\"WeareCXO\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wearecxo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">We are CxO<\/a>, <em>\u201chelping entrepreneurs execute and scale\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>He has been in Singapore for about three years, and has seen <strong>the growth of the ecosystem<\/strong>, while experiencing each step of it, from the \u00ab\u00a0base\u00a0\u00bb of the ecosystem to the \u00ab\u00a0top\u00a0\u00bb of it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Singapore startup ecosystem from the bottom to the top<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Flocations\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flocations.com.sg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flocations<\/a>, the company Florian created, was initially a new way to browse for travels online, based on the combination of Visualisation (choose your destinations on a map, not a list) and Data (say us how much you want to spend, and we show you where you can go).\u00a0The company <strong>started in 2011, got accelerated during the Q1 of 2012 at JFDI for 3 months.<\/strong> They <strong>raised $700k in December 2012,<\/strong> and Florian eventually stepped down from the company in Q3 2013 after a business pivot and with a team ready to take it to the next stage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-blk71-blk79-JTC-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1265\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-blk71-blk79-JTC-3.jpg\" alt=\"florian cornu singapore startup scene tech ecosystem evolution flocations jfdi startup weekend hackerspace SG TNF Ventures matching scheme MAVA We are CXO South-East Asia startups emerging markets martin pasquier blk71 blk79 JTC\" width=\"640\" height=\"389\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Florian inaugurated almost all the components of the Singaporean startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He <strong>pitched his idea with a team during the #2 <a title=\"Startup Weekend Singapore\" href=\"http:\/\/singapore.startupweekend.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Startup Weekend<\/a><\/strong> happening in this small city-state in South-East Asia.<\/li>\n<li>The Startup Weekend itself was organised by the two people, <strong><a title=\"Meng Weng Wong Singapore\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meng_Weng_Wong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meng Weng<\/a> and <a title=\"Hugh Mason\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/hughmason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hugh Mason<\/a><\/strong>, who would build later on the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, better known as JFDI.<\/li>\n<li>Meng Weng was also the founder of <strong>Singapore&rsquo;s first hackerspace, called <a title=\"Hackerspace SG Singapore\" href=\"http:\/\/hackerspace.sg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HackerSpace SG<\/a>,<\/strong> still in operation today. It really shows how people within the ecosystem and with a strong capability for professional mobility help to build it from the inside.<\/li>\n<li>The first class of JFDI which Flocations was a member of was <strong>sponsored by <a title=\"Singtel Innov8\" href=\"http:\/\/innov8.singtel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Singtel Innov8<\/a>, the startup\/innovation department of Singapore&rsquo;s main telco Singtel<\/strong> (also one of the biggest telco in Asia).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-flocations-3.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1268\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-flocations-3.png\" alt=\"florian cornu singapore startup scene tech ecosystem evolution flocations jfdi startup weekend hackerspace SG TNF Ventures matching scheme MAVA We are CXO South-East Asia startups emerging markets martin pasquier flocations\" width=\"640\" height=\"368\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the fundraising, Flocations convinced<strong><a title=\"TNF Ventures\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tnfventures.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> TNF Ventures<\/a>.<\/strong> The funding was made possible under the <strong><a title=\"Technology Incubator Scheme NRF Singapore\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nrf.gov.sg\/innovation-enterprise\/national-framework-for-research-innovation-and-enterprise\/technology-incubation-scheme\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology Incubator Scheme by the National Research Foundation<\/a><\/strong>. This scheme <strong>matches every $1 spent by accredited investors into startups by $6 by this research arm of the government, up to $500k.<\/strong> The company was able to raise $700k, with Singtel Innov8 also joining the round.<\/p>\n<p>The fundraising happened at a time where it was<strong> the beginning of the ecosystem on a VC side<\/strong>. There were less funds than there are now, and Flocations was among the first companies to raise funds from the \u00ab\u00a0second wave\u00a0\u00bb of the Technology Incubator Scheme, it was also one of the first company to raise money after JFDI. So far, <strong>60% of the startups of JFDI have been able to raise money<\/strong>, partly through the matching schemes.<\/p>\n<p>One <strong>challenge<\/strong> entrepreneurs such as Florian face in Singapore is the sheer market size. The island has <strong>5m population<\/strong>, and if the South-East Asian region is 600m big, markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam or Thailand all have their own challenges, from language barrier to different payment or logistics infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Ecosystem building trough mapping, analysis and data<\/h2>\n<p>Now that Florian is out of Flocations, he is acting as both <strong>another role within the Singapore startup ecosystem<\/strong> in his position of entrepreneur in residence at <a title=\"Majuven\" href=\"http:\/\/www.majuven.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Majuven VC fund<\/a>, and as an ecosystem builder himself. Two of his side activities involve:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>grow from Seed to Series A,<\/strong> in other words from their first fund raising (usually less than $1m) to their next one (usually 2-10m), based on his experience and his new position. He has published <strong><a title=\"Map of Active VC in South-East Asia MAVA\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@floriancornu\/introducing-mava-the-map-of-active-vcs-in-southeast-asia-f62ca856d307\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an online data-based tool call \u00ab\u00a0MAVA\u00a0\u00bb<\/a><\/strong> (for \u00ab\u00a0Map of Active VC in Asia\u00a0\u00bb) where anyone can check check available sources of funding based on investment size and on the strength of the VCs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-VC-list-3.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1267\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-VC-list-3.png\" alt=\"florian cornu singapore startup scene tech ecosystem evolution flocations jfdi startup weekend hackerspace SG TNF Ventures matching scheme MAVA We are CXO South-East Asia startups emerging markets martin pasquier VC list\" width=\"640\" height=\"285\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>building from scratch the <a title=\"Saas business Asia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saasbusiness.asia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SaaS ecosystem in Asia<\/a>,<\/strong> as the region has many SMEs who will soon turn into a giant market of growing businesses who need these kind of tools. He&rsquo;s doing so both by <strong>mapping out and analysing the different players of South-East Asian markets<\/strong> when it comes to SaaS startups, and is planning a first conference on the topic within the next few months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-saas-asia-philippines-3.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1266\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/florian-cornu-singapore-startup-scene-tech-ecosystem-evolution-flocations-jfdi-startup-weekend-hackerspace-SG-TNF-Ventures-matching-scheme-MAVA-We-are-CXO-South-East-Asia-startups-emerging-markets-martin-pasquier-saas-asia-philippines-3.png\" alt=\"florian cornu singapore startup scene tech ecosystem evolution flocations jfdi startup weekend hackerspace SG TNF Ventures matching scheme MAVA We are CXO South-East Asia startups emerging markets martin pasquier saas asia philippines\" width=\"640\" height=\"472\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To conclude, we can see how the <strong>Singapore tech ecosystem, highly readable as it&rsquo;s still at human size and with key people building bits of it at every new position within it<\/strong>, is growing with a high diversity of actors.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not an easy path though, as shows a recent article from Tech in Asia justly titled <a title=\"Singapore startup scene overrated \" href=\"\/\/www.techinasia.com\/singapores-startup-scene-is-overrated\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>\u201cSingapore\u2019s startup scene is overrated. But that\u2019s the only way it can succeed\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/a>. <strong>Large funding rounds have recently happened out of Singapore,<\/strong> despite its media and government activism to claim the first spot among South-East Asia tech scenes. Entrepreneurs from Singapore too rarely conquer the surrounding markets.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s a strategy for Singapore anyway, as the article author\u2019s makes clear: <em>\u201cOn the surface, <strong>Singapore is marketing itself as an oasis<\/strong>. Its relatively corruption-free governance attracts investors into the region, creating the wide availability of venture capital funding you now see. <strong>But what Singapore is, or is trying to be, is an aircraft carrier.<\/strong> It\u2019s projecting influence beyond its tiny shores. It\u2019s trying to achieve what Israel now has, but the reverse way. Instead of collecting a global diaspora, it\u2019s letting people go out hoping they\u2019ll maintain ties here, and bringing people in hoping they\u2019ll develop roots in the country. The influx of talent adds to the local knowledge pool, creating a virtuous cycle of wealth and knowhow\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For another journey into Singapore startup ecosystem, do check <a title=\"HungryGoWhere, a Singapore startup success story told from the inside, with Wong Hoong An\" href=\"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/hungrygowhere-singapore-startup-success-story-told-inside-wong-hoong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the story of\u00a0Wong Hoong An, a co-founder of Hungry Go Where<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the Coursera MOOC I&rsquo;m\u00a0following on \u00ab\u00a0Beyond Silicon Valley\u00a0\u00bb, I had to interview a local entrepreneur to better understand the concept of a startup ecosystem. Living and working in Singapore for two years now, I chose to interview\u00a0Florian Cornu, whose experience started with\u00a0corporate innovation finance industry beforehand in London for AXA. He then came to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98,156,54,48,49,92,51,87],"tags":[248,46,326,314,100,327,91,328,57,240,102,329,330],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accelerators-incubators","category-cities-markets","category-community","category-government-innovators","category-innovators-category","category-investors-angels-vcs","category-markets-category","category-startups-innovators","tag-accelerators","tag-asia","tag-data","tag-ecosystem","tag-government","tag-hackerspaces","tag-investors","tag-saas","tag-singapore","tag-singtel","tag-south-east-asia","tag-startup-weekend","tag-vc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}