Enterprise Singapore (SLINGSHOT)

Check the fit first

• SLINGSHOT is a pitching competition for deep tech startups. The invitation is addressed to deep tech startups from around the world, so a founder in India is inside the stated audience.
• It is not an accelerator and not an incubator. What is on offer is a competition with grant prizes, a sponsored trip to Singapore and the meetings around the SWITCH finals, not a residential programme with a curriculum.
• The published call states no fee policy and no equity policy. Read the application form carefully and confirm those terms before you submit.

How applications work

• Applications are online, through a third-party application platform rather than Enterprise Singapore's own site. For the 2026 edition the form sat on Agorize.
• The 2026 deadline was extended to 27 July 2026, and that edition is now closed. Deadlines here have moved during a round, so check the current edition page on the SWITCH site before you plan around a date.
• Expect a wide field. More than 6,800 startups from over 150 markets entered the 2025 edition.
• Enterprise Singapore's general enquiries line is +65 6898 1800.

What selected teams get

• A place among the Top 50 Global Startups for the 2026 edition, and a chance at the grant prizes.
• A sponsored trip to Singapore for the finals, which run over three days in late October 2026.
• Curated site visits and expert-led sessions in Singapore.
• Meetings with global investors, corporates and ecosystem leaders.
• Work with industry partners on scaling the solution.
• A pitch slot on the SLINGSHOT finals stage.

Before you build an application around it

• The shortlist size is not fixed across editions: the 2025 edition put 60 teams on the SWITCH stage, while the 2026 edition selects a Top 50.
• No stage, incorporation or funding rule is published alongside the invitation. If a condition matters to you, check the form for the edition you are entering.
• SLINGSHOT is a route into Singapore's innovation scene for a few days, not a landing pad with ongoing support attached. Plan the rest of your Asia expansion separately.

Enterprise Singapore is Singapore's enterprise development agency, and it runs SLINGSHOT, a global pitching competition for deep tech startups. SLINGSHOT is held inside SWITCH, the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology, and its finals take place in Singapore. The agency describes its purpose as growing stronger Singapore enterprises by building their capabilities and opening global opportunities, and it presents itself as a partner journeying with businesses through their defining moments of growth.

How the programme works

SLINGSHOT is a competition, not an accelerator and not an incubator. Deep tech startups enter from anywhere in the world through an online application. From the entries, a group of teams is selected for the finals. In the 2026 edition those teams are named the Top 50 Global Startups and are offered a sponsored trip to Singapore for the finals, which run from 27 to 29 October 2026. The invitation is framed as a way to compete for grant prizes and to scale from Singapore's innovation arena.

The finals sit inside SWITCH, and what a selected team does there falls into five parts. It competes: earn a place among the top teams and vie for the grant prizes. It immerses: curated site visits and expert-led sessions in Singapore. It connects: meetings with global investors, corporates and ecosystem leaders. It collaborates: co-innovation with industry partners on scaling the solution. And it pitches: a slot on the SLINGSHOT finals stage.

The 2026 edition closed for applications on 27 July 2026, after that deadline had been extended. Its finals fall in late October 2026, so the edition is running now rather than open for entry. The online form is the way in, and once an edition's form closes, the next edition's page is the thing to watch.

Who can apply

The invitation is addressed to deep tech startups from around the world, which includes founders based in India. No stage, incorporation or funding rule is stated alongside it, so the application form for a given edition is the place to check for conditions. The one filter that is stated is the field: deep tech.

Scale

SLINGSHOT draws a wide international field. More than 6,800 startups from over 150 markets took part in the 2025 edition, and the Top 60 Global Startups pitched live at SWITCH in Singapore that year. The 2026 edition selects a Top 50 rather than a Top 60, so the shortlist size changes between editions. Both of those numbers are the competition's own published counts of who entered and who reached the stage, not a tally of companies Enterprise Singapore has backed.

Who runs it

SLINGSHOT is published by Enterprise Singapore as part of SWITCH. The 2026 application form was hosted on Agorize, a third-party application platform, and that call names Agorize as the organiser of the application round, so two names appear across the paperwork. Enterprise Singapore is the body behind the competition and the festival pages; Agorize ran the application form.

SWITCH is described as a meeting point for leaders, entrepreneurs, creators, accelerators and investors from the Global-Asia innovation ecosystem. Enterprise Singapore's own remit is broader than the competition: the agency says it works to grow Singapore enterprises by building capabilities and opening global opportunities, creating good jobs for Singaporeans, and to connect international businesses to trusted partners in Singapore.

Locations

The finals are in Singapore. Enterprise Singapore's headquarters are at 230 Victoria Street, #09-00 Bugis Junction Towers, Singapore 188024, and general enquiries go to +65 6898 1800. The agency also keeps a network in over 35 locations around the world, which it uses to drive Singapore companies' expansion and to connect international businesses with trusted partners in Singapore. For a founder outside Singapore, the practical location is the finals city itself: the trip is sponsored for the selected teams, and everything on the programme happens there over those days.