It did not happen exactly with a snap of the fingers. It took consistent years of hard work with nurturing and support by NUS Enterprise for PatSnap to be what it is today – a unicorn in business – a company valued at more than US$1 billion. Its R&D intelligence as well as IP intelligence platforms are used by more than 10,000 customers around the world.
Today, its founders, two NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) alumni, can proudly proclaim that they have left their fledgling days far behind when they first formed the start-up in 2007. The company now has offices in the US, the UK, Canada, Japan and China. Its close ties with NUS and access to Singapore’s talent eco-system and dense network of industry partners has enabled it to launch an R&D centre in Singapore three years ago.
In fact, founders Mr Jeffrey Tiong (NUS Engineering, Biomedical Engineering) and Ms Guan Dian (NUS Computing, Information Systems), both previous NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award winners, have just announced that the company has secured US$300 million in Series E funding. This puts them in unicorn territory, which is reserved for start-ups valued over US$1 billion – a first for NUS-supported start-ups.
Referring to their recent success in garnering new funding, PatSnap’s CEO Mr Tiong said, “Adding Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent to our notable roster of investors will help solidify PatSnap as the industry standard for innovation intelligence. Both have deep investment expertise with AI-led companies and proven track records supporting sustainable company growth.”
Mr Tiong’s inspiration for PatSnap came about during his year-long NOC internship in Bio Valley (Philadelphia) in 2005, where he was tasked to search for technical information on patents. Despite being trained in biomedical engineering, he found the process messy and difficult to understand. This inspired him to build his own patent search engine.
With incubation and grant support from NUS Enterprise, he was able to kick start his company upon graduation. PatSnap has since achieved significant growth through its decision to establish a base in China through the NUS Suzhou Research Institute (NUSRI) and BLOCK71. Support from NUS Enterprise also enabled the company to develop its global patent analytics database.
Ms Guan helmed the development of PatSnap’s brand and presence in China, and was also responsible for bringing in PatSnap’s first clients. Ms Guan, who went on a year-long NOC internship in Silicon Valley, said, “Without my NOC experience, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. NOC seeded the entrepreneurial spirit in me, gave me a brand new perspective that uncertainty is not scary and that we can embrace risk-taking.”
Ms Guan is also an honouree in Asia Tatler’s Generation T 2018 list and the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016 list.
