5 November 2024
On 12th October our Managing Director, Warran Bolton, and Technical Director, Steven Skolosdra, travelled to Singapore for a week-long market visit with 5 other UK companies after being selected earlier this year by Innovate UK to be part of their Global Incubator Programme for Advanced Manufacturing Singapore. Innovate UK’s Global Incubator Programme, delivered in partnership with Singapore Deep Tech Alliance (SDTA), is an acceleration programme for innovative businesses to work with world-leading incubators abroad.
The first day of our market visit began at the Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC (ITAP) Expo. This was an exciting opportunity for us to exhibit for the next 3 days alongside the other cohort businesses (Autentica, GMP Manufacturing, Holdson, Planet Computers and Valuechain) as part of the Innovate UK stand.
Inspired by Hannover Messe, ITAP is now the premier advanced manufacturing event in the Asia-Pacific, committed to showcasing the latest technological advancements and facilitating knowledge-sharing among industry experts.
Above Photo Credit: Holdson
On our second day of exhibiting at iTAP 2024, our cohort had the incredible opportunity to engage with Mr. Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament for East Coast GRC and share our exciting advancements in the advanced manufacturing field.
Kevin Hallas from Innovate UK and Luuk Eliens from Singapore Deep Tech Alliance (SDTA) led a panel discussion on fostering cross-border innovation with companies from the cohort sharing more information on the wide expanse of collaboration opportunities between the UK and Singapore.
Later in the day each of the companies took to the Inno-X Stage to deliver their forward-thinking solutions to the ITAP attendees. Well done to all the companies who delivered such informative presentations. Some great connections were made.
Above Photo Credit: Singapore Deep Tech Alliance (SDTA)
In the evening, we attended the Eden Hall Reception at the British High Commissioner’s residence, facilitated by Hanbin Zheng (PhD)’s team.
We spent our final day at the ITAP expo, followed by the Innovate UK Grand Showcase event in the evening at The Executive Centre – Ocean Financial Centre. This involved all companies in our programme delivering their pitches to an audience of local entrepreneurs, businesses and investors, with Q&A reserved for individual conversations in the networking space. A great day with valuable connections made.
A huge thank you to Steve O’Connor who has supported the Invisu team over the past few months. Steve has been nothing short of fantastic in providing guidance, insights and connections into the Singapore market.
Above Photo Credits: Steve O'Connor and Kevin Hallas
Our morning began with a meeting with the Maritime and Port Authority, followed by a meeting with David Vass (Automation Support Services Pte Ltd) in the afternoon. In the evening, we attended our group dinner at Chymes.
Our trip concluded on the Friday where we met with the Singapore British Chamber of Commerce in the morning and debriefed on our visit in the afternoon at SDTA HQ. A final celebration dinner at Satay by The Bay rounded off a successful trip.
It has been incredible to introduce invisu to the Singapore market over the past year, meet new businesses and build relationships in the sector. Following our visits and online sessions, we are excited about working with companies in Singapore into the future.
We would like to thank Kevin Hallas and Jens Böhm from Innovate UK Business Growth and Luuk Eliens, Rebecca Sharpe and Eldora Tan from SDTA for all their support in making the group's trips so successful.