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SUCCESS CASE
How a Biomedical Services Provider Secured S$80K+ for APAC Expansion
RIC helped a Singapore biomedical and clinical trial solutions provider secure three MRA grants for expansion into the Philippines and Australia.
CATEGORY
Overseas Expansion
CLIENT TYPE
Biomedical services / clinical trial solutions
GRANT TYPE
Market Readiness Assistance Grant support
FUNDING SECURED
Over S$80,000
About the Client and Project
Client Profile
The client is a Singapore-based biomedical research and clinical trial solutions provider serving the pharmaceutical and medtech sectors. Since its incorporation in 2017, the company has doubled in size and revenue year on year while building a reputation for clinical trial support across the region. Its expertise includes regulatory strategy, trial site management, and medical monitoring. Backed by a healthcare-focused venture fund, the company has regional operations spanning Malaysia, Australia, and the Philippines.
Project Nature
The project involved three coordinated overseas expansion initiatives across the Philippines and Australia. These included business setup in the Philippines, outsourced business development in the Philippines through an Employer-of-Record model, and market entry into Australia through incorporation and strategic advisory services. The work combined entity formation, tax structuring, regulatory and corporate advisory, local BD resourcing, vendor engagement, and expansion planning to support the client’s Asia-Pacific growth strategy.
Funding Objective and Challenge
Funding Objective
The funding objective was to support the client’s overseas expansion through Enterprise Singapore’s Market Readiness Assistance Grant. The grants helped offset eligible costs for business setup, outsourced business development, incorporation, and strategic advisory activities in the Philippines and Australia. The funding enabled the client to reduce market entry costs, establish legal and operational presence, hire in-market BD support, and build a stronger foundation for regional clinical trial and biomedical services growth.
The Challenge
The client was a fast-growing Singapore biomedical research and clinical trial solutions provider serving pharmaceutical and medtech companies. With regional operations across Malaysia, Australia, and the Philippines, and over S$2 million in overseas revenue in a recent financial year, the company needed a structured way to deepen its Asia-Pacific footprint. The challenge was to organise multiple overseas expansion activities into separate, grant-compliant projects: business setup in the Philippines, outsourced business development in the Philippines, and market entry into Australia. Each project needed clear scope, vendor rationale, cost structure, milestones, and commercial expansion logic.
How RIC Supported the Client
RIC supported the client across all three overseas expansion workstreams.
RIC’s support included:
• Structuring three separate MRA grant applications for the Philippines and Australia.
• Advising on business setup activities, including legal entity formation and tax structuring in the Philippines.
• Scoping outsourced business development in the Philippines through an Employer-of-Record model.
• Supporting market entry into Australia, including incorporation and strategic advisory services.
• Advising on corporate structure, regulatory obligations, and legal incorporation through professional service partners in both markets.
• Conducting vendor due diligence on local professional service firms, including Carpo Law, AHC CPAs, and CharterNet.
• Structuring costs, milestones, deliverables, reporting formats, and financial projections to align with Enterprise Singapore’s MRA requirements.
• Managing the full Business Grants Portal submission and post-approval documentation process.
RIC’s role was to help the client convert a multi-market APAC expansion plan into fundable, executable, and audit-ready MRA projects.
Outcome
FUNDING SECURED
Over S$80,000
The client secured over S$80,000 in MRA support across three overseas expansion projects. The projects supported legal entity setup in both the Philippines and Australia, the hiring of dedicated in-market business development personnel in the Philippines through a compliant EOR model, and strategic advisory for Australian market entry. The client projected 8x overseas revenue growth over four years for the Philippines market and initiated collaborations and feasibility scoping for new clinical trial projects in Australia.
What This Means for Similar Companies
For biomedical, medtech, and clinical services companies, overseas expansion often requires more than customer outreach. Market entry may involve entity setup, local tax and regulatory structuring, in-market hiring, BD operations, and service feasibility work. This case shows how MRA can support a multi-market expansion strategy when each workstream is clearly scoped, vendor-backed, commercially justified, and structured around measurable market entry outcomes.
