Technology
As technology has disrupted traditional industries and spawned new businesses, GIC’s investing and organizational efforts in this area have also expanded. We believe our approach to finding good companies, good technologies and good business models, leaves us well-placed to invest in this challenging environment.
Our holistic approach
GIC’s ‘ODE to technology’ framework describes our investing and organizational responses to the repercussions of disruptive technology. O-D-E stands for Offence, Defence and Enterprise Excellence.
- Offence – Gaining from technological disruption by investing in the winners of this shift
- Defence – Protecting our existing investments as they face disruption
- Enterprise Excellence – Leveraging technology for our investment and organizational processes
Investing in technology
GIC has been investing in the technology space since our founding. Our Technology Business Group monitors and assesses industry trends, and recommends GIC’s overall technology portfolio size and composition, and partnership strategy. Our Technology Investment Group handles most of our early stage investments, through venture capital funds, co-investments and direct investments. We also have sector specialists for public and private market investments.
We leverage our core strengths to invest in technology:
Long-Term Orientation
- Apply a long-term, fundamentals-based approach
- Stay invested for the long term, including post-IPO for newer companies
Broad Investment Mandate
- Invest directly and through external fund managers in start-ups, growth companies, pre- and post-listed companies
- Flexibility in capital structure, investment size, sub-sector, geography and duration of our investments
Global Presence
- Local presence in innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley and Beijing, complemented by our global presence through eight other offices
- Able to spot leads and lags across regions, and capture unique opportunities
Collaborative & Committed Partner
- Seek to be a lifetime partner and build multiple touch points with our investee companies
- Share connections and insights with our investee companies and external fund managers
Given the uncertain and rapid nature of technological disruption, we remain cautious and selective. We manage investment risk by diversifying, maintaining a robust investment process, adhering to strict pricing discipline, understanding the risk-reward calculus, and sizing the investment.
A tech-driven organization
At GIC, we have stepped up our operational capabilities to leverage technology more effectively, to harness data, deepen insights and sharpen our competitive edge.
- Leads innovation and transformation within the organization
- Develops holistic digital solutions specific to GIC’s needs
- GIC’s in-house innovation lab
- Accelerates use of innovative technologies and incubates new ideas, in collaboration with business units
- Undertakes research on tech trends that can be implemented enterprise-wide
- Finds, incubates and scales up promising radical innovations with the potential to disrupt the institutional asset management industry
