AngelCentral Deep Dive Series: Understanding and Investing in IP-centric Startups
This is a hybrid event. Please indicate whether you will be attending in-person or online (via Zoom) when you register for the workshop. We do encourage all participants to join in-person for a better event experience.
Not every startup is built around patents or proprietary technology, but for many, intellectual property (IP) still plays an important role in protecting their product, brand, or competitive edge.
In these startups, intellectual property (IP) is the business – whether it’s proprietary technology, patents, trademarks, or trade secrets. But for many investors, IP can also be one of the hardest areas to assess with confidence.
This deep dive workshop is designed to help investors better understand how IP creates value in startups, what to look out for, and how to spot both opportunities and risks when evaluating IP-centric businesses. We’ll have a panel of industry experts who have worked closely with startups on IP strategy and protection, as well as founders who have navigated patents, trademarks, and trade secrets while building and scaling their companies. Together, they’ll share real-world perspectives on what actually matters.
What we’ll cover:
The different types of IP (patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights) and when each matters
How a strong IP can create defensibility and competitive advantage
Red flags investors should look out for around ownership, protection, and freedom to operate
Who this is for:
Angel investors who want to assess IP strength, risks, and value more confidently
Professionals/ecosystem partners who are supporting IP-centric startups
Founders or operators building IP-centric or technology-driven startups (or considering licensing IP)
If you're looking to better understand how IP creates value in startups or curious about how IP influences a startup's defensibility and growth, join us for this workshop! Walk away from this session with a more practical lens for assessing how IP fits into the overall investment story.
About the Speakers
Ms. Tricia Chong, Deputy Director, SGInnovate
Venture Investing at SG Innovate. Primary focus in development of portfolio companies. Imperative for deep/emerging tech start-ups to be agile but have also devised an IP strategy to enhance their value proposition to attract investment and attain growth. IP strategy should include brand building, not limited to trademarks.
Experience in intellectual property (IP) portfolio management and technology (tech) transfer, which commenced with a US ivy league university and subsequently, two Asian universities. In driving access and utilisation of university intellectual property (IP: copyright, patent, knowhow, trade secrets, etc.) from research outcome, an average of 100 IP licenses sealed annually with established companies, spin-offs and start-ups, thematically focused pilot-scale facilities (e.g., Start Center at the Singapore CleanTech Park) or institution-industry consortiums.
Contributed to start-up ecosystems through entrepreneurship programs, seed funding new ventures championing research-based deep‐tech Intellectual Property.
Dr. Kian Hoe Khoo, Head of Singapore, Davies Collison Cave
Kian Hoe is a registered Singapore patent attorney who is experienced in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications in the areas of life science-related disciplines including molecular biology, protein engineering, immunotherapy, antibody therapeutics, vaccines and medical diagnostics. He is also experienced in providing patent validity and infringement advice.
Kian Hoe has co-authored a number of research articles in peer-reviewed international journals and is an author of a chapter in Antibody Patenting: A Practitioner’s Guide to Drafting, Prosecution and Enforcement (Wolters Kluwer, 2019). Kian Hoe has previously taught at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine as an adjunct lecturer on life sciences. He has also given talks and lectures on intellectual property at the National University of Singapore and A*STAR.