Quantum AI accelerator opens, boosting S’pore’s hub ambitions

Outfit will play growth catalyst by helping start-ups through mentorship, fixed programme

- Krist Boo Senior Business Correspondent

(From left) Ms Lisa Schroeder, accelerator director of Qai Ventures Singapore, moderating a panel discussion at Switch on Oct 30 with Quantumoo CEO Rajeeb Hazra; National Quantum Office executive director Ling Keok Tong; Qai Ventures CEO Alexandra Beckstein; and Dr Ying Chen, director, centre for quantitative finance, NUS. PHOTO: QAI VENTURES

(PHOTO: QAI VENTURES)

Singapore has drawn its first quantum AI startup growth investor to its shores, giving its ambition to lead in the frontier technology a boost.

Qai (pronounced kai) Ventures Singapore, backed by a Switzerland-based venture fund, made its official debut on Oct 29 at the Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (Switch).

The outfit will play growth catalyst by helping startups through mentorship and a fixed programme, as well as being a venture builder in building new startups from scratch.

It announced plans to register seven new ventures here by 2027, while drawing on its network of business partners, academia and young enterprises to shore up the local ecosystem.

The firm hosted its first global hackathon here last week, and has been taking applications from Oct 29 for a five-month programme to help startups take their ideas closer to investment-ready concepts, and to investors.

It is promising each successful startup up to $200,000 in funding during the programme and up to US$2 million ($$2.6 million) in funding subsequently.