The Singapore technology scene has been buzzing with seven tech startup exits so far this year. Who will be number eight?
The technology scene in Singapore has been buzzing nonstop this year. There have been seven successful tech startup exits in the last seven months. While we can differentiate these seven into three broad categories which attracts acquisition (proprietary technology, digital advertising, online market platforms), another way to look at them is whether these are consumer products or enterprise software.
The seven are:
- YFind (Indoor Positioning) acquired by Silicon Valley-based Ruckus Wireless
- Techsailor (Digital Marketing) acquired by India-based TO THE NEW
- travelmob (short term renting platform) acquired by US-based HomeAway
- DS3 (Internet banking security) acquired by Singapore-based Gemalto
- sgCarMart (vehicle classified platform) acquired by Singapore Press Holdings
- Catcha Digital Media (online advertising) acquired by Japan-based Opt Inc
- GridBlaze (data localization) acquired by an undisclosed Silicon Valley startup
Interestingly, no enterprise software companies.
The term ‘enterprise software’ refers to the applications that large companies use to conduct line-of-business operations such as accounting, business intelligence (BI), communication and collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM) and human resources (HR).
Why aren’t people building enterprise software? For one, it is not an easy task. The field has long been dominated by leaders such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft-owned Yammer for the last 30 years. The barrier to entry for enterprise software is also significantly higher than consumer products, so most entrepreneurs avoid going into this industry.
For the case of Singapore, other than these giants, there’s another enterprise software market leader nobody is talking about: Deskera. The Sequoia-backed company seems to be picking up some traction among enterprises. Deskera is currently serving clients such as Google, Starbucks, HP and Great Eastern, powering them with a full suite of enterprise solutions. On top of that, it is also partnering up with partners such as IBM, HP and NEC to serve clients in the enterprise space.
Read also: YFind is Singapore’s 7th tech exit this year. Who’s buying what?
Why are companies here using Deskera? For one, it is an open source enterprise software and offers unlimited customization to its clients. Today, the company has offices across the globe including India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the U.S, and has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times globally.
Which leads to the question, with an established network of partners and key clients, will we hear any merger and acquisition (M&A) news from the team soon? There are two ways this can happen: either Deskera exits and gets acquired by other software enterprises giant in a move similar to IBM purchasing Softlayer, or Deskera can continue to grow its foothold in Asia Pacific by starting to acquiring smaller software companies here.
If we look at other software enterprise leaders like Oracle or Salesforce, they have been actively acquiring companies over the last decade. Oracle alone acquired nearly 100 companies since 1994, while Salesforce and Microsoft are also actively snapping up companies. We all love stories of how new companies bring up the fight to industry giants and leaders, don’t we?
So, will we start seeing M&A activities in the enterprise vertical this part of the world soon? Well, Deskera does fit the profile of young David going against enterprise software Goliaths. We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.
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