CYNICS who say there is no room for failures in Singapore only has to look to Clarence Tan for inspiration.

The 39-year-old and the tale of his latest outfit GlobalRoam Group is a classic 'failed entrepreneur made good' story.

In 1995, he started what later became Internet telephony solutions provider Pinnz Pte Ltd, which was raking close to $40 million in sales a year at its peak in 1999-2000. Unfortunately, the company continued to be loss-making and when the dotcom bubble burst, the company had to give up its listing dreams in late 2000 and folded with debts of over $1 million.

But like phoenix rising from the ashes, Mr Tan picked himself up months later, and founded GlobalRoam, his third company (he also started memory chip trading firm Sunnyline International in 1994 which was sold to a Czech Republic partner). GlobalRoam offers integrated communications solutions to telcos and businesses.

Despite having suffered setbacks here, he continued to believe that Singapore is the best place to start a business. For one, there are numerous funding schemes offered by government agencies such as the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to give startups a fillip.

Clarence Tan, GlobalRoam founder

GlobalRoam managed to raise $600,000 for its first round of funding. Half of that came from a private individual and the other half came from EDB which matched the initial funding in a dollar for dollar programme called the Start-up EnterprisE Development Scheme. In 2003, the company launched its first suite of roaming applications for the business traveller.

In the same year, Mr Tan started an MBA course at the National University of Singapore, which turned out to be a valuable networking platform. It was there that he got to know Michael Tan, who heads Ho Lee Construction's investment arm, The Alternative Pte Ltd. The investment vehicle later pumped in $1.4 million into GlobalRoam, which was boosted by an additional $150,000 from the EDB's Growth fund.

His time at NUS also led him to Fatte Telecom, an NUS spin-off. GlobalRoam's Mr Tan found Fatte Telecom to be synergistic with his company's offerings and started to license Fatte Telecom's technologies.

By end-2004, GlobalRoam was ready for more commercial presence with a suite of solutions that included low-cost IDD calls for fixed lines, and conferencing services for people on the move. And in May this year, deciding to strengthen its R&D and intellectual properties, GlobalRoam paid $3 million in cash and shares to acquire Fatte Telecom.

Although the experience gathered from previous ventures made him wiser, Mr Tan admitted that he continued to face similar challenges while growing his latest business. There appeared to be a lack of potential investors for companies that have progressed beyond the seed stage but are still too small for the big appetite of venture capitalists.

Explained Mr Tan: 'Although we've successfully raised the seed money from EDB and business angel during the early stage of the startup, it was difficult to secure any funding during the growth stage when the products are ready for commercialisation.'

It's because the $1-5 million range in funding such companies seek is usually too huge for angel investors, and too small for venture capitalists, said Mr Tan. It doesn't help that the number of business angels in Singapore is limited compared with the US for example.

'I've tried VCs in Singapore, but we were not so successful as the initial fund requirement is only $2 million, which is too small for most VCs,' said Mr Tan. 'We were in the process of getting ourselves listed in NSX (Australia's Stock Exchange of Newcastle) sometime end last year but chose to abandon it in March this year to switch over to OTC due to the cost factor.'

Mr Tan estimates that it would cost at least three times as much to list on the NSX, compared with trading its shares on the OTC Capital. The other advantage of being quoted on OTC Capital is the proximity to its core business operations here. 'It's easier for us to manage the process and keep the analysts updated here compared with Australia,' he added.

The first company to be quoted on the OTC platform, GlobalRoam raised $2.4 million in proceeds, exceeding its original target of $2 million. The money raised will be used to develop new products.

Its current suite of solutions are already available, through regional partners, in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

The company has just turned profitable, after being in the red for the last three years. For the first half of its current financial year, it had a turnover of $1.2 million and is expected to rake in $2 million when the year ends. About 20-30 per cent of its revenues are from overseas.

'We forecast that the revenue of GlobalRoam will triple in three years' time due to the commercialisation of two more new products by the end of this year,' said Mr Tan. 'And we are targeting bigger partners such as the Tier 1 mobile operators globally. By then, a large proportion of our revenue (about 80 per cent) will be derived from outside Singapore.'

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