Seeds Capital
SEEDS Capital is the Singapore government's startup co-investment arm, now part of SG Growth Capital. It backs early-stage deep-tech founders by investing alongside private venture firms, matching their money up to a set cap, across sectors from advanced manufacturing to urban water. As of 2025 it holds over 100 startups, including two water companies.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
SEEDS Capital is not a fund in the venture-capital sense; it is the investing arm the Singapore government uses to pull private money into risky young companies. As of 1 April 2025 it sits inside SG Growth Capital, the entity formed by merging SEEDS with EDBI, the investment arm of the Economic Development Board, though it still runs as its own division under General Manager Tan Kaixin.
SEEDS Capital rarely writes a startup's first cheque on its own. It waits for an approved venture firm to commit, then puts government money in beside the private money, up to a fixed cap per company. In 2025 SEEDS Capital widened that pipe, signing twenty new co-investment partners and lifting its cap per deep-tech startup to S$12 million.
SEEDS Capital treats water as a thin slice of a very wide mandate. It spreads across advanced manufacturing, health and biomedical science, agri-food and urban solutions, and water lives in that last bucket, urban solutions and sustainability. In my Leviathan database SEEDS Capital surfaces on just two water deals, both in Singapore: Hydroleap, which strips contaminants out of industrial water with electricity instead of chemicals, and Turing, whose software keeps watch over water-treatment plants.
SEEDS Capital is therefore a generalist that lands on water occasionally, not a water specialist, and for a newcomer the distinction matters: when it backs a water startup it brings government co-investment and a Singapore launchpad, not deep water-sector expertise. The open question is whether a state co-investor with a fresh S$150 million to deploy starts treating water as more than the odd bet.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does SEEDS Capital invest in?
- SEEDS Capital invests in early-stage Singapore deep-tech startups across advanced manufacturing, health and biomedical science, agri-food, and urban solutions and sustainability. It does not pick one sector; water sits inside that sustainability bucket, where Leviathan records two Singapore water deals, Hydroleap and Turing.
- Is SEEDS Capital a government fund?
- SEEDS Capital is the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, the government's enterprise-development agency. Since 1 April 2025 it has operated as a division of SG Growth Capital, the state entity formed by merging SEEDS with EDBI. Its capital is public, deployed to draw in private venture money.
- Who runs SEEDS Capital?
- SEEDS Capital is led by General Manager Tan Kaixin, who kept the role after the 2025 SG Growth Capital merger. Her investment team includes Deputy General Manager Jacqueline Chia and senior investment managers such as Clement Chua, civil-servant investors rather than traditional venture partners.
- What is the difference between SEEDS Capital and SG Growth Capital?
- SEEDS Capital is the early-stage co-investment division; SG Growth Capital is the larger state entity created on 1 April 2025 when SEEDS merged with EDBI, the investment arm of the Economic Development Board. SEEDS keeps its name and team and handles the youngest startups under that umbrella.
- Does SEEDS Capital invest in water?
- SEEDS Capital invests in water occasionally, not as a specialty. Leviathan tracks two water companies in its portfolio, both Singapore-based: Hydroleap, an electrochemical industrial-water treatment startup, and Turing, a water-plant software firm. Water falls under its broader urban solutions and sustainability mandate.