HP’s APAC multi-faceted headquarters in Singapore stretches across a handful of business areas. Source: Shutterstock

Hewlett-Packard opens doors to new APAC headquarters in Singapore

By | 9 May, 2017

IS it just us or is Singapore buzzing with a constant inflow of new arrivals? Last month, we reported on announcements from the likes of General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, and Singularity University, which have all launched new facilities in the tiny island nation.

The latest, as reported by e27, is Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), which has just launched its APAC headquarters in Singapore. The multi-faceted facility stretches across a handful of business areas, including research and development, supply chain and logistics, as well as sales and marketing. It will also house a customer experience center and an innovation center.

Like many other MNCs, HPE recognizes the grassroot, scrappy power of startups and will be launching a new incubator program called InnovateNext. The program has investment funds of US$140 million to back Singapore companies with over the next five years.

“With our new InnovateNext program, HPE will now be able to provide our best-in-class technology and global partner ecosystem to promising technology startups in Singapore to help them turn ideas into commercially viable enterprise technologies solutions they can offer to prospective customers,” HPE president and CEO Meg Whitman said.

The program, co-run with the Singapore Economic Development Board, will focus on developing enterprise solutions in IoT, hybrid IT, and data analytics. One of its first startups, IoT startup gridComm, which develops smart lighting solutions, said it had been able to use the data analytics HPE provided to “help scale its street light control and smart city sensor integrations.”

It would seem the types of companies in which HPE plans on investing will help further Singapore’s smart nation plans.

According to a release, each cohort will bring 12 startups on board at a time and companies will get to leverage HPE’s engineering and consultative resources.

“This program undertakes a corporate innovation model well-aligned with EDB’s efforts to facilitate partnerships between multinational companies with their customers, suppliers and startups,” EDB chairman Dr Beh Swan Gin said.

SEE ALSO: Irish Koomo opens Singapore hub to tap into Southeast Asia’s emerging markets

With so many newly-minted B2B incubation programs, it would seem Singapore startups are now spoiled for choice. But when it comes to startup resources, how many is too many?

Do these new programs help or hinder the growth of a new company? And could the swarm of corporates looking to channel the agile innovation of startups into exciting new business lines for themselves take away the spirit of what it truly means to be a startup?



By

@irismtleung

| @irismtleung

Iris Leung is a technology writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. She's mainly interested in startups, urbanism, the future of work/media and the emerging markets. She was formerly the editor at e27.co in Singapore and StartupsHK in Hong Kong.

READ MORE