SINGAPORE – Singapore’s equity market is still far from a true revival and “there is much, much work ahead”.
Ms Gillian Tan, assistant managing director of the development and international group at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), shared this perspective during a panel discussion on Singapore’s equity market renaissance at the IMAS (Investment Management Association of Singapore) Investment Conference 2026 on April 7.
Ms Tan noted that while the building blocks are in place, achieving a “true renaissance” will require stronger trading liquidity, a deeper pipeline of listings and broader investor participation.
The MAS’ Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP), a $6.5 billion initiative, introduced in 2025, was designed to boost investor participation, extending beyond the larger companies to include the small-and-mid-cap companies.
Other MAS and SGX initiatives include the $30 million “Value Unlock” package, which encourages listed companies to improve their communication outreach to investors, and the Grant for Equity Market Singapore (GEMS) scheme, which provides funding for equity research reports on SGX-listed companies. GEMS was enhanced to expand research coverage to private companies, some of which may eventually list on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
Together these measures aim to boost trading liquidity in the Singapore market.
The Government has also enhanced measures in Budget 2026 to support high-growth private companies, as it seeks to boost the pipeline for listings.
This includes a top-up of $1 billion to the Startup SG Equity scheme, which is managed by Enterprise Singapore and the Economic Development Board. The scheme helps early-stage and growth-stage deep tech start-ups grow and scale their innovations.
As at March 2, the Government has invested more than $560 million and catalysed more than $2.6 billion in private sector investments under the scheme. The investments are made by co-investing in start-ups and selected venture capital funds.
Start-ups have to do a whole lot before they even get to an initial public offering (IPO), said Ms Tan. She added that Singapore can be the “growth capital hub” that provides funding and resources for these companies to scale up and expand.
The Republic has made great strides towards that goal. Mr Ho Han Ming, partner at international law firm Reed Smith, said capital formation tends to evolve from early-stage funding, to growth or scale-up capital, and ultimately to exit through public listings or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
He added that Singapore took more than two decades to build towards the scale-up capital phase and today, it has a well-developed ecosystem, including institutional investors, fund managers, and professional services like legal, tax and fund administration.
This robust infrastructure allows the Republic to support companies across the full capital lifecycle, which spans fund formation, to deployment of the capital or investing the funds, to managing the investments and eventual cash out or exit.
Mr Frederick Sia, head of private capital markets at ADDX, said a strong start-up ecosystem is critical to building the pipeline for public listings in Singapore.
ADDX is a MAS-licensed investment platform that offers access to private market investments in smaller investment amounts, from as low as $5,000.
Mr Sia added that “as more companies scale, it deepens the market and gives investors greater confidence in the quality of listings”.
With more companies and better quality listings, the markets become more attractive, which then draws in more companies to list, creating a positive feedback loop.
Examples of quality start-ups that listed recently on SGX include semiconductor optics company, MetaOptics Technologies which listed on September 9, 2025; medtech firm UltraGreen.ai, which listed on December 3, 2025; and AI-powered customer experience platform Toku, which listed on January 22, 2026.
The next piece of the puzzle that needs to fall in place is a vibrant stock market for exits or public listings.
Regulators have proposed changes to The Securities and Futures (Amendment) Bill 2026, which was read for the first time in parliament on April 7.
The Bill will be debated in Parliament at a future sitting and if passed, it will pave the way for the Global Listing Board, which is set up for the purpose of dual listings on SGX and Nasdaq.
The Global Listing Board targets quality-growth companies in Asia with a market capitalisation of $2 billion and above; and which have global ambitions and strong links to Asia. It is expected to go live around the middle of 2026.
Mr Ho from Reed Smith said that “by leveraging Nasdaq’s technology and operating expertise, SGX is effectively upgrading its market infrastructure to global best-in-class standards”.
Issuers become more confident to list here and investors more confident to put their money in, and over time SGX becomes more attractive as an Asia-based venue for capital raising and liquidty, he added.
“While this is not a direct listings initiative, stronger infrastructure and market depth can contribute to a more attractive ecosystem for issuers, particularly those with an Asia-focused investor base,” Mr Ho noted.
The markets have, however, been volatile, due to the Middle East crisis. This may deter some start-ups from going for IPOs until the situation eases.
Mr Sia said they might consider short-term credit options, like commercial papers, which have an average term to maturity of 30 days, to meet funding needs and avoid raising equity at unfavourable terms.
He added that ADDX is seeing increasing demand from Singapore start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for more flexible capital solutions such as these commercial papers.
“This flexibility is key to a more resilient fundraising environment,” Mr Sia said.
He added that exit dynamics in South-east Asia are evolving, with companies considering other exit options such as consolidation through roll-ups and M&A. A roll-up is a strategy where a company acquires and merges with smaller companies in the same industry to create a larger combined entity to achieve economies of scale.
