BLOCK71 Singapore, commonly known as "Blk71", is a factory building located in the

Ayer Rajah one-north is a subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, first developed by JTC Corporation as the country's research and development and high technology cluster. It was first conceptualised in 1991 as part of the National Technology Plan and offici ...

Industrial Estate of

one-north one-north is a subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, Queenstown, Singapore, first developed by JTC Corporation as the country's research and development and high technology cluster. It was first conceptualised in 1991 as part of the National Tech ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' referred to BLOCK71 as the heart of Singapore's technology start-up ecosystem and the world's most tightly packed

entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

ecosystem. BLOCK71 has built up a strong innovation and entrepreneurship community, where entrepreneurs,

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

, developers and mentors within the interactive digital media space are in close proximity to each other. BLOCK71 is home to more than 100 start-ups, venture capital firms and tech incubators. It is also located near other technology hubs within Singapore, such as the

Fusionopolis Fusionopolis () is a research and development complex located at the one-north business park in Singapore. It houses various research organizations, high-tech companies, government agencies, retail outlets, and serviced apartments in one location. ...

Biopolis Biopolis is a research and development centre for health sciences, biomedical sciences in Singapore. It is located at one-north in Buona Vista, and is close to the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Polytechnic, the Singapore Instit ...

and National University of Singapore (NUS).

History

The Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate was built in the 1970s by the

Jurong Town Corporation JTC Corporation (JTC), formerly the Jurong Town Corporation, is a statutory board under Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry that champions sustainable industrial development. It master-plans clean, green and smart estates to create attra ...

as a series of flatted factories for manufacturing-based activities. A few blocks within this industrial estate, including Block 71, were initially planned for demolition. Blk71 was established in 2011 by NUS Enterprise, the

Media Development Authority The Media Development Authority (abbreviation: MDA) was a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). History MDA was founded on 1 January 2003 by the merger of Singapore Broadcasti ...

and

SingTel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

Innov8 as a start-up hub at Block 71, known as Plug-In@Blk71. In early 2015, Infocomm Investment, the investment arm of the

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI). History The Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS) was the statutory board that acted ...

inaugurated the extension of Blk71 to neighboring Blk79 (dubbed BASH, which stands for Build Amazing Startups Here), which is also a refurbished industrial estate. A third and last unit, Blk73, designed for smaller startups, is being built up and should open in 2015.

Plug-In@Blk71

Plug-In@Blk71 is an incubation program that supports and provides start-ups in the interactive digital media space access to resources needed to effectively develop and market their solutions. It was set up by NUS Enterprise, the Media Development Authority and SingTel Innov8. Managed by NUS Enterprise, Plug-In@Blk71 provides a common platform for entrepreneurs and stakeholders to meet, connect and accelerate the growth of ideas and start-ups. Since 2011, a strong start-up community has been established at Plug-In@Blk71, where people regularly share contacts, ideas and success stories, which has allowed the start-up scene to grow rapidly. Start-ups are given 24-hour access to Plug-In@Blk71. Located on level 2 of Blk71, Plug-In@Blk71 provides hot-desking space for entrepreneurs to work on their ideas. There are some 30 entrepreneurs, start-ups and business ideas located at the hot-desking space each month, which typically stay there for several weeks, up to a few months. Plug-In@Blk71 has shared resources, including meeting rooms, a large seminar room, free internet access, pantry supplies and office equipment. Regular entrepreneurial events are organised at Plug-In@Blk71 for the entrepreneurial community. There are approximately 3-5 events organised each week, including

mentoring Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

sessions, business clinics, VC pitching sessions, industrial sharing seminars and networking events.

Start-ups

The companies based at Blk71 are typically technology start-ups. The majority of them are within the interactive digital media space, including Stream Media, which develops a mobile in-app payment platform, travelmob, which provides an online market place for vacation rentals across Asia, Daylight Studios, a mobile game developer and Appknox, a mobile security company. However, there are also a few hardware tech companies, such as Zimplistic, which is developing the world’s first automatic roti-maker and T.Ware, which is developing a

wearable technology Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches, fitness trackers, and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the s ...

that provides deep pressure to calm autistic children.

Incubators, accelerators and investors

There are approximately 30 organizations located at Blk71 that provide a range of funding and in-kind support, including angel investment, seed funding, series A, B and beyond. These include NUS Enterprise (which manages Plug-In@Blk71 as well as has additional incubation space on levels 1 and 3), and JFDI.Asia.

References

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