EntrePass: founders of venture-backed or innovative technology businesses

Eligibility requirements

• You have started, or intend to start, a private limited company registered with ACRA, and you hold at least 30% of its shares. The company must be venture-backed or own innovative technologies; a trading or services business without either feature is not what the pass is for.
• You meet at least one innovation criterion. Funding: at least S$100,000 raised in a single funding round from investors for a past or current business (MOM gives examples such as SEEDS Capital, Vertex Ventures, SSGE partners, international VC firms, corporates and business angels).
• Alternatively, the business is or will be supported by a government-recognised or internationally renowned incubator or accelerator, or you founded and sold a venture-backed or innovative technology business under your own management, evidenced by incorporation records and the sale agreement naming you.
• Alternatively, the business holds intellectual property registered with an approved national IP institution that gives it a significant competitive advantage which cannot easily be copied, or it has an ongoing research collaboration in Singapore with an Institute of Higher Learning or Research Institution in which you are personally involved and which the institution will verify. Contracts of service do not count.
• Certain businesses are excluded regardless of structure: coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts; bars, nightclubs and karaoke lounges; foot reflexology and massage parlours; acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine and herbal dispensing; employment agencies; and geomancy businesses.
• Enterprise Singapore evaluates the application with MOM and may contact the pass holder for engagement and audit. Treat the business plan as a document that will be tested against what the company actually does.

Legal framework

Build the evidence

Prepare records that substantiate the relevant criteria. The final checklist depends on the applicant, route and filing authority.

• Passport particulars and a consistent personal, education and employment history, with explanations for any name differences.
• A business plan that describes the product, the market, the funding position, the proposed Singapore activity and the hiring plan, written to match the innovation criterion relied on.
• Evidence for the chosen criterion: term sheets and bank records for a funding round; the accelerator's acceptance letter; incorporation records, management letters and the sale and purchase agreement for a track-record claim; the IP registration; or the institution's written confirmation of the research collaboration.
• ACRA incorporation documents and the share register if the company already exists, or the proposed shareholding if it does not.
• At renewal: audited or management financial statements, payroll and CPF records for local employees, invoices and ledgers supporting total business spending, and the Startup SG Network profile.

How to apply

1. 01

   Test the innovation criterion before anything else

   Identify which criterion the facts support and whether the evidence is independent enough to be verified. A funding round that cannot be shown in bank records, or a research collaboration the institution will not confirm, will not carry an application.

2. 02

   Settle the corporate structure and shareholding

   Confirm the private limited company, the 30% holding and who the other shareholders are. If the company has already been running for close to 12 months, decide whether to apply now under new-application criteria or plan for the renewal tests.

3. 03

   Submit the application to MOM

   The candidate applies directly. MOM states a processing time of within 6 weeks for most cases, with some taking longer. The application fee is S$105; check the linked authority for current amounts.

4. 04

   Act on the in-principle approval

   The IPA is a pre-approved single-entry visa and gives 6 months to enter Singapore and have the pass issued (S$225 issuance fee). ACRA registration and any business licences are separate approvals; the EntrePass does not guarantee them.

5. 05

   Build towards the renewal milestones from day one

   From the second renewal the company must show annual total business spending of S$100,000 and one local workforce unit, rising each cycle. Design the budget, hiring and record-keeping around those tests rather than discovering them three months before expiry.

After approval & family planning

• Family passes are not automatic. A legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21 may qualify for a Dependant's Pass once the business shows annual total business spending of S$100,000 and one local workforce unit, or the founder meets an alternative test (two or more venture-backed companies founded and sold, more than S$2 million raised, or two or more deep-tech IPs). Parents may qualify for a Long-Term Visit Pass at S$200,000 spending and two local workforce units.
• Keep the 30% shareholding, the Startup SG Network profile and the financial statements current. Renewal applications open three months before expiry, and the local workforce test is measured at the point of submission.
• The local workforce count uses MOM's formula: each local professional, manager or executive on the company's direct payroll with at least three months of CPF contributions counts as one unit; local qualifying-salary employees count as one third each, up to twelve.
• There is no built-in route to permanent residence. A founder who later seeks PR applies to ICA on the merits of the whole profile, including the company's contribution.

What this route builds, and what it opens

WG assesses every route on three returns: the knowledge it adds, the cognitive capability that sustained work abroad develops, and the institutional opportunity it opens or closes. Real work is the mechanism in each case.

Programme context. Where a participant will genuinely found and run a qualifying technology company in Singapore with a meaningful shareholding, this route may be assessed. The renewal milestones make it unsuitable as a placeholder for a role that will really be performed elsewhere. Read the framework ↗

Frequently asked questions

Points to consider

• The EntrePass is a work pass for a real operating company. Authorities test whether the founder is actually running the business in Singapore, whether the spending is genuine business spending and whether local employees are on the direct payroll.
• Enterprise Singapore may audit. Keep the business plan, the actual activity and the financial records consistent with one another from the outset.