Singapore has advanced to the fourth position in the global start-up ecosystem rankings for 2025, up from fifth place in 2024. The new ranking places Singapore behind Israel, Britain, and the U.S.
Since 2020, Singapore has risen 12 spots, making it one of the fastest-growing start-up ecosystems globally. Experts attribute Singapore’s success to its business-friendly environment and robust start-up support infrastructure.
Singapore excels in key metrics such as the presence of investors, access to start-up opportunities, the concentration of global tech companies and corporations, and the availability of skilled local talent. Evaluating 118 countries, the rankings highlighted Singapore’s focus on leading in deep-tech and industries like fintech, foodtech, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing. Singapore’s universities play a significant role by training a highly skilled workforce for research and development, fostering connections between start-ups and academic programs, and promoting entrepreneurship on campuses.
Singapore excels in start-up ecosystem
The Singapore government, through its agency Enterprise Singapore, is committed to improving the start-up ecosystem. “Enterprise Singapore will continue to strengthen the ecosystem, and we welcome global start-ups with strong science-based solutions to leverage Singapore as a launchpad to grow and scale their business in the region and beyond,” said Emily Liew, assistant managing director of innovation at Enterprise Singapore.
She highlighted Singapore’s open ecosystem, which supports talent and collaboration, offering stability, growth resources, and market access despite global start-up challenges. Singapore’s improved ranking aligns with a strong year for funding and enhanced government support. A report by Enterprise Singapore and PitchBook, released in April 2025, revealed that Singapore secured nearly 60% of ASEAN’s venture capital deal volume in 2024, with a total deal value of US$4.8 billion.
In October 2024, the government committed an additional SGD440 million (US$341 million) to attract venture capital firms to invest in local deep tech start-ups. This increased the scheme’s total government funding to over SGD1 billion.