Singapore has joined forces with Breakthrough Energy (BE), the climate organization founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, to set up a programme to support Southeast Asian innovators and drive the commercialization of deep-tech climate technologies.
BE recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore’s global investment company Temasek and Enterprise Singapore – the island state’s government agency championing enterprise growth – to establish Breakthrough Energy Fellows Southeast Asia, or BE Fellows SEA, with a joint funding commitment over the next three years. The programme, to be helmed out of Singapore, marks the first BE Fellows hub outside of the United States.
BE Fellows SEA, the first regional hub in the organization’s global Fellows programme, aims to tackle early-stage barriers to climate technology innovation in Southeast Asia and accelerate the development of climate technologies that have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases at scale and contribute towards global net-zero targets.
The partnership is expected to leverage the pioneering climate technology platform established by Breakthrough Energy, Temasek’s thought leadership, expertise and networks as a global investor anchored in Asia, and Enterprise Singapore’s commitment to drive startup development and nurture deep tech startups in Singapore and the region. Also, the partners expect the programme to help address the critical innovation gap in the development of deep-tech climate technologies in Southeast Asia.
Pressing challenges
“To address the world’s most pressing climate challenges, innovators require tailored resources and support. That’s why we established the Breakthrough Energy Fellows programme,” said Ashley Grosh, Vice President of Breakthrough Energy Fellows.
“We are excited to deepen our commitment to early-stage innovation through the launch of a regional hub in Singapore. With its strategic location, thriving ecosystem, and unwavering commitment to sustainability, Singapore is an ideal epicenter for nurturing climate innovation in Southeast Asia and beyond,” she added.
Grosh also said that Temasek and Enterprise Singapore’s deep understanding of the regional landscape make them ideal partners for this expansion. “Together, we’re ready to develop and scale tailored solutions to address the urgent clean energy needs we need to reach net-zero.”
Russell Tham, Head of Emerging Technologies at Temasek, pointed to an “urgent imperative” to bridge the capabilities gap in climate-tech innovation in Southeast Asia.
“We’re excited to convene this partnership with our trusted partner, Breakthrough Energy, to pioneer what is the first regional hub of their well-established global Fellows programme [in Singapore], alongside Enterprise Singapore. Breakthrough Energy’s extensive global science, investment, and innovation ecosystem, coupled with Temasek’s global sustainability focus, has been and will continue to be a powerful and complementary combination. We are confident that this tripartite Fellows programme will catalyze a new wave of tech innovations in Singapore and Southeast Asia that can contribute towards solving our global climate challenge.”
Meanwhile, Cindy Khoo, Managing Director of Enterprise Singapore, said that deep tech innovations possess the transformative power to solve climate change challenges, but
startup founders often face early-stage roadblocks as they take their technologies from lab to market.
“We need to be deliberate in providing climate-tech innovators with the right support needed to develop and commercialize new, game-changing solutions more quickly,” she said.
“We are excited to partner with Breakthrough Energy and Temasek to anchor Breakthrough Energy Fellows SEA in Singapore and build upon our strong fundamentals and infrastructure in both research and venture building to catalyze climate tech breakthroughs in the region.”
Funding and support
BE Fellows SEA will provide researchers, scientists, engineers and technology innovators in the region with funding and support to help take their promising climate solutions to the next stage of development and commercialization.
Through the programme, each participating Fellow’s research will receive an initial US$500,000 (18.3 million baht) grant for further development and technology de-risking. They will also gain access to a global network of industry partners, mentors, investors and experts, as they develop, demonstrate and commercialize their solutions for a clean energy future, with potential to receive follow-on funding from the same programme. These collective efforts aim to help the Fellows with technology advancement, commercialization fundamentals, and go-to-market strategies as they work to scale their solutions for wide-spread adoption.
Across the first three cohorts of Breakthrough Energy Fellows, teams have raised over US$150 million (5.5 billion baht) in follow-on funding and created more than 200 full-time jobs.
In Southeast Asia, an investment gap of US$1.5 trillion needs to be bridged from now till 2030, and substantially more until 2050 to meet its net zero target. New technologies are needed to reduce the costs, and more needs to be done to cultivate talent and develop capabilities in climate science and innovation to tackle the climate crisis more effectively.
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