Following the news that Singapore-based patent analytics firm PatSnap raised US$300m in a fresh Series E funding;  

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“With the fresh funding round backed by Softbank and Tencent, the valuation of PatSnap exceeded US$1bn. The fresh injection of capital will help the patent analytics firm in scaling up by enhancing product development and business expansion initiatives.

“Research and innovation has become critical for businesses to succeed and remain competitive, especially in the technology sector, where companies dedicate significant resources on intellectual property (IP) and patents. As a result, the budget for R&D and the need to analyze these R&D strategies are growing.

“Singapore has relatively lesser number of unicorns compared to other Asian countries such as China and India. However, the way the limited number of unicorns have scaled up is impressive. For instance, Singapore-based Grab has grown to be a leading ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia and leaped forward to become the region’s firth company to achieve decacorn status. PatSnap also showcases the potential to scale up significantly with several factors going in its favor. PatSnap stands to benefit from the IP race between the US and China, with the both the countries engaged in patent filing spree while Singapore has long remained neutral and maintained a stand to remain open to both the US as well as China.”