SINGAPORE, Clearbridge Accelerator announced today that it has received an investment from Tim Draper, a well-established venture capitalist based in the Silicon Valley. Mr Draper, who is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), is well known for making early-stage investments in dynamic companies in new markets.

Clearbridge Accelerator is a technology incubator that focuses on commercialising key emerging and disruptive technologies working alongside local and overseas research institutions. The company specialises in early-stage investments in focus areas of biomedical devices, nanotechnology, advanced material sciences and computational algorithms.

"I am enthusiastic about Singapore's start-up scene, especially with what I have observed in the last few years. I see a growing and thriving community where smart entrepreneurs are working alongside scientists who are pushing out cutting-edge, innovative technologies. Investing into Clearbridge Accelerator is an exciting opportunity for me to participate in this vibrant technology scene in the medical technology and advanced materials sector, while generating more potential deal flow for DFJ," said Mr Tim Draper. See Annex 1 for background information on Mr Draper.

"We are indeed delighted to have Mr Draper's involvement in Clearbridge Accelerator. His personal investment and helping out as an advisor will help to boost Clearbridge Accelerator's abilities to nurture and expand technology start-ups. Furthermore, Mr Draper's extensive networks will also be crucial in helping our incubatees to enter global markets. The Clearbridge Accelerator is currently supporting four incubatee companies, and we have plans to double the number of incubatees within the next year," said Mr Johnson Chen, Managing Partner, Clearbridge Accelerator.

The new investment will go towards strengthening Clearbridge Accelerator's incubation platform, and in expanding its incubation team and support infrastructure.

Clearbridge Accelerator is the Singapore incubation arm of Clearbridge Partners, an Asian based venture capital firm. The company aims to translate core technologies from the laboratory into commercial products that will result in sustainable and lasting enterprises. CBA focuses on key emerging and disruptive technologies that will make a dramatic impact in tomorrow's world. Supported by the National Research Foundation's Technology Incubation Scheme, CBA provides the necessary funding, mentorship, operational and execution discipline to deliver determined and accelerated results. CBA's initiatives and investment focus areas are in biomedical devices, nanotechnology, advanced material sciences/ceramics and computational algorithms.
www.clearbridgeaccelerator.com

Annex 1 - About Tim Draper

Timothy C. Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. His original suggestion to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by hundreds of businesses. On behalf of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tim serves on the boards of DoAt, Glam, Meebo, Prosper, SocialText, and DFJ Plug 'N Play companies. DFJ's previous successes include: Skype (EBAY), Overture.com (YHOO), Baidu (BIDU), Parametric Technology (PMTC), Hotmail (MSFT), PLX Technologies (PLXT), Preview Travel (TVLY), Digidesign (AVID), and others.