SWITCH 2024 to focus on deep tech, explore AI and quantum tech

The Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) flagship conference, organised by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and MP Singapore, will return for its 9th edition from 28–30 October 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. This year’s startup festival will spotlight Singapore’s ambitions in deep tech, which focuses on innovations based on extensive research and development (R&D) and have the potential to create outsized impact.

Keynote and content sessions will deep dive into the value that deep tech offers in addressing today’s most complex challenges. This includes the role of climate-tech innovations in driving the green energy transition, how frontier technologies like quantum tech and space tech can pave the way for new industries, and the transformative power of AI across industries like healthcare, robotics and supply chain technologies, among others.

The festival will bring together the global and local innovation community. For instance, emerging quantum startups Quantinuum and Pasqal, venture builders (VBs) such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Material Impact and The Engine Ventures as well as venture capitalists (VCs) like Sierra Ventures, 500 Global and Vertex Ventures will take the stage to share their expertise on global funding and technology trends.

The conference will examine deep tech opportunities in Asia and dive into emerging areas and applications for quantum tech and space tech. Prominent speakers include Katie Rae, CEO and Managing Partner of The Engine, Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner of Matter Venture Partners, Ilyas Khan, Founder, Vice Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Quantinuum and Georges-Olivier Reymond, CEO, Co-Founder of Pasqal.

The sectoral thought leadership stage will host discussions on the potential for new innovations to address existing challenges in areas like healthcare and biomedical sciences, sustainability and supply chain, and identify commercialisation pathways to scale solutions in Asia and beyond. Sessions include how advancements in predictive analytics are transforming the healthcare industry and improving patient outcomes; the outlook for green innovation and investments; plus the value of generative AI (gen AI) in strengthening supply chain resilience and reducing costs in the transport and logistics sector.

"Innovation is born not only out of a need for change, but also to build resilience for what's around the bend. Deep tech is the key to unlocking new solutions that can make an outsized impact in areas like healthcare and climate change, and we need all hands on deck to translate these ideas into reality,” said Cindy Ngiam, Director for Startup Ecosystem and Community, Enterprise Singapore.

“SWITCH 2024 will bring together different players in our innovation ecosystem, so we can kickstart the important conversations we need to be having about deep tech and take steps forward to creating positive global impact.”

Dedicated startup-centric segments at the event will include efforts to connect funding partners with startups and catalyse deal-making activities, such as through initiatives like the Investor Hours @ Investor Lounge facilitated by Carta*, and Deal Friday Premium by SEEDS Capital. There will also be talent initiatives to support emerging growth areas, such Angelhack’s Global Hackathon, which will gather almost 100 of the world’s top developers competing in the finals at SWITCH. To support startups’ internationalisation efforts, SWITCH will unveil new market access opportunities including updates to the Global Innovation Alliance and cross-border innovation challenges, and feature more than 350 global exhibitors and over 30 market pavilions.

SLINGSHOT, a deep tech startup competition, will return for its 7th edition to drive the development of high-growth startups. It has seen a record number of more than 5,500 startups applications from 150 countries. The top 50 global startups will pitch live at SWITCH to a panel of major investors and industry leaders and vie for over S$1.2 M in grant prizes.

For the first time, SWITCH 2024 will welcome new partner events such as the SOSV Climatech Summit, which will spotlight the opportunities for climate tech as an emerging category for venture investing and RIE Deep Tech Day, which will explore the changing paradigms of deep tech and how this can power innovation in tech. Partner events like TechInnovation by IPI, A*STAR’s SME Tech Day and AIMX Singapore will also return.

SWITCH is targeted at startups, entrepreneurs, investors, innovation teams, community multipliers, multinational corporations (MNCs), and government representatives. A record turnout of over 15,000 participants occurred in 2023.

*Carta is an ownership and equity management platform. It currently manages more than 2.5 trillion dollars in equity globally.