Investing in Technology

Technology has disrupted traditional industries, spawning new businesses in its wake. To adapt to this challenging environment, we have expanded our investing and organizational efforts in this area, with a focus on identifying good companies, good technologies and good business models.

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

Board 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.

Learn more about our investments

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.

Technology Group

Leads innovation and transformation within the organization
Develops holistic digital solutions specific to GIC’s needs

GIC Labs

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

Kepler

Finds, incubates and scales up promising radical innovations with the potential to disrupt the institutional asset management industry