The city-state focuses on creating more efficient and sustainable buildings. Sydney-based Taronga Ventures, an investment firm specializing in what it calls Real Tech said its partnership with CapitaLand’s Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab would help connect Southeast Asia’s first smart cities development lab with a network of emerging tech firms focused on real estate and the built environment. Singapore is already recognized as a sophisticated international city with a focus on innovation and efficiency — many of our existing investments are already entering the market and looking to use Singapore as a base to grow into Asia. CapitaLand, which founded the innovation center late last month with support from the country’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and Enterprise Singapore, welcomed Taronga’s participation in the tech initiative after the Temasek Holdings-controlled developer had made adoption of digital technologies a primary focus of its “The Next 20” plan for transforming its business over the coming two decades.
CapitaLand’s tech lab aims to create a center where smart city solutions can be created, tested and ultimately commercialized within a facility that the developer has set up at The Galen complex in the 55-hectare (136 acre) 5G-ready Singapore Science Park. Taronga has established its RealTech Ventures Fund to invest in technology relevant to real estate and the built environment. Among Taronga’s contributions to the innovation lab will be the introduction of its own network of products and partners to support development that benefits real estate operators and owners specifically, aiming to increase efficiency, reduce costs, source new revenue streams and boost sustainable operations. Investment in real estate technology accelerated significantly in 2019, totaling $2.6 billion worth of commitments globally, up from $1 billion three years earlier. In October, CapitaLand’s rivals at Frasers Property launched an intelligent building platform at their flagship office tower in Singapore through a tie-up with Microsoft. The joint effort between the developer and the tech giant will make it possible to create a “digital twin” of Frasers Tower to test system operation in the Tanjong Pagar-area commercial building and enable remote management in real time. Keppel Group also gave a nod to technology this month when it pegged Louis Lim to become CEO of Keppel Land, giving the company reins to a former Bain & Company partner who had served as managing director for technology and innovation at the developer before being named chief operating officer less than two years ago.