New one-stop shop for investors and startups launched by PwC Singapore

PwC Singapore on Tuesday announced the launch of Venture Hub, the world’s first one-stop shop targeted at helping investors and entrepreneurs active in the startup and innovation space navigate the complex ecosystem.

This is launched four months after KPMG launched KPMG Digital Village, a collaborative ecosystem of innovators, investors, and corporates innovating together.

The consulting and auditing firm, which has been active in the fintech space in the city-state, said Venture Hub would go beyond this sector and the team will be based in Singapore headed by Patrick Yeo, PwC’s Venture Hub leader. They will look at disruptive technology in areas such as Biomedicaltech, Regtech, Wealthtech, Legaltech amongst others. According to the team, this will help its clients connect to other regional and global markets.

Patrick said in a statement,

There are many stake holders in the venture ecosystem ranging from start-ups, investors, incubators, accelerators to government agencies, each playing an important role. In order to effectively meet the needs of the varied stakeholders with speed, agility and efficiency, we felt that the conventional model of how professional services firms provided advice to such stakeholders had to change.

He further explained the area of expertise they need help with won’t matter. With this one-stop shop model, the stakeholders will have a lot more flexibility when they wish to seek advice from them– be it related to business strategy, global market access, financing or regulatory compliance, etc .

Professional services firms such as PwC are traditionally known to be “costly and rigid”, but they are transforming to keep up with the times. The new model promises “innovative ways of collaboration” in lieu of rigid costs that are common to traditional services firms.

Back in May, PwC had announced that it would be setting up a new specialist center of excellence headquartered in Singapore to cater to the needs of family businesses located in the region. That centre will focus on succession planning, family governance, strategic growth advisory and will zero in on transferring leadership across generations. The professional services firm which has offices in over 157 countries with more than 208,000 staff, was also a strategic sponsor for Startupbootcamp Fintech where it provided regulatory insights.