SGX–Nasdaq Dual Listings: What Startups Must Prep

Singapore is trying something very specific: make it less painful for growth companies to raise capital in the US while keeping a meaningful footprint on SGX.

On 9 Jan 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and SGX Regulation (SGX RegCo) published proposals to streamline dual listings on SGX and Nasdaq, with a new Global Listing Board (GLB) targeted for mid‑2026. If you’re building a Singapore startup with regional ambitions, this matters even if you’re not listing tomorrow.

Why? Because capital market plumbing shapes marketing strategy. When the pathway to a US-facing story gets smoother, founders and growth teams start planning earlier: positioning, investor narratives, retail visibility, compliance-ready messaging, and the internal systems needed to support all of it. The companies that benefit won’t be the ones who “start PR” six months before an IPO. They’ll be the ones who start operational discipline now—with help from AI business tools that turn compliance and growth reporting into something you can actually manage.

What MAS and SGX RegCo are changing (and why it’s a big deal)

The core move is alignment. MAS is proposing changes that bring Singapore’s IPO and post-listing requirements closer to US practice so companies can coordinate fundraising, disclosure, and timelines across both markets.

Here are the headline proposals from MAS and SGX RegCo, translated into what they mean in practice.

One set of offer documents instead of two

Right now, dual-listing often means duplication: issuers prepare prospectus materials to satisfy two different disclosure regimes. MAS proposes allowing a single set of offer documents by incorporating US prospectus disclosure requirements for both IPO and post-listing stages.

Why founders should care: time and cost are not side issues. They decide whether a finance team can keep running the business while preparing listing materials—or whether everything slows to a crawl.

A shorter prospectus registration timeline

MAS also proposes shortening the prospectus registration process to better match the US IPO timeline. A key detail: Singapore currently requires IPO prospectuses to be publicly available for at least seven days before registration; the proposed change would allow the final Singapore prospectus to be lodged and registered as soon as the US registration statement is effective.

Marketing implication: tighter timelines increase the premium on having your story, metrics, and investor materials ready earlier—because you don’t get extra weeks “for free.”

US-style safe harbours (forward-looking, buybacks, trading plans)

MAS proposes three safe harbours for GLB issuers, similar to the US:

• Forward-looking statements safe harbour (with conditions): protection from civil lawsuits if statements meet requirements and aren’t false or misleading.
• Share buyback safe harbour: protection if buybacks follow rules on timing, price, and volume.
• Pre-determined trading plan safe harbour: defence against liability if insider trading rules are complied with.

My take: this is the most misunderstood part. Safe harbours don’t mean “say whatever you want.” They mean your statements need stronger internal controls, clearer risk language, and a reliable source of truth for metrics.

Earlier engagement with retail investors

MAS proposes letting issuers engage retail investors earlier in the IPO process (after lodging the preliminary prospectus), aligning more closely with US practice.

Singapore startup marketing angle: earlier retail visibility pushes you to communicate like a consumer brand and a listed company. That’s a different skill set than B2B demand gen.

Depositary receipts: shifting responsibility to the underlying company

MAS proposes treating the company behind the underlying shares as the issuer and offeror of sponsored depositary receipts, rather than the bank issuing them—making the company responsible for prospectus registration and liable for misstatements.

Practical impact: responsibility moves closer to the business. You can’t “outsource” disclosure risk.

GLB eligibility rules (SGX RegCo)

SGX RegCo’s proposal includes GLB requirements such as:

• Minimum S$2 billion market capitalisation
• Must be listed or accepted for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market
• Must meet financial thresholds (for example: US$90 million revenue in latest financial year or satisfy income/assets-with-equity requirements)
• Delisting from GLB if Nasdaq Global Select Market listing isn’t maintained
• Appoint a Singapore resident independent director or a Singapore-based compliance adviser
• Facilitate retail participation by allocating min 5% or S$50 million (whichever is less) to at least one designated retail brokerage in Singapore

Even if you’re far from S$2B valuation today, the message is clear: Singapore wants a clearer bridge for companies that can credibly play on a global stage.

What this means for Singapore startup marketing (not just finance)

Dual listings are usually framed as a corporate finance story. For founders and growth leads, it’s also a marketing story—because public markets reward clarity, repeatability, and trust.

A dual-listing pushes you into “always-on proof”

Public investors (especially in the US) don’t buy vision slides alone. They buy:

• consistent revenue definitions
• cohort retention that’s hard to game
• unit economics that survive scrutiny
• governance that signals discipline

That pressure changes how you market years earlier. If your growth engine depends on messy attribution or cherry-picked metrics, you’ll struggle to build a credible public narrative.

Your brand becomes cross-border by default

A Singapore-first story won’t be enough if a big chunk of investor attention is US-based. You’ll need positioning that lands in both contexts:

• Singapore: regional HQ, regulatory credibility, Southeast Asia expansion
• US: category leadership, scalable unit economics, defensible moat

You’re effectively running a cross-border go-to-market narrative—and every inconsistency shows up faster when analysts and investors compare you to US comps.

Retail visibility raises the bar for communication

The proposals include mechanisms to bring retail into the process earlier and require retail allocation for GLB offerings. Retail participation can be great for liquidity and awareness, but it forces simplification.

If your business model can’t be explained without jargon, it will get mispriced—or worse, misunderstood.

The operational reality: dual listings reward companies that run “instrumented”

Here’s what I’ve found working with growth teams: good storytelling is downstream of good instrumentation.

If you want to sell a credible expansion narrative—whether to customers in APAC or investors in the US—you need systems that can answer simple questions quickly:

• What is revenue, exactly, and is it consistent across geographies?
• Which segments are growing profitably, and which are subsidised?
• How do CAC and payback change by channel and market?
• What are the leading indicators you can responsibly talk about?

This is where AI business tools stop being “nice-to-have.” They become the difference between confident reporting and last-minute spreadsheet chaos.

AI tools that actually help (and how to use them)

Not all AI tools are useful here. The best ones reduce time-to-truth and tighten controls.

1. Finance and close automation

   • Goal: faster month-end close, cleaner audit trail
   • What to look for: workflow approvals, anomaly detection, role-based access

2. Revenue intelligence + CRM hygiene

   • Goal: consistent pipeline definitions, fewer “ghost deals”
   • What to look for: automated field completion, call/email summarisation, forecast variance explanations

3. Customer analytics and cohort reporting

   • Goal: retention and expansion metrics you can defend
   • What to look for: cohort segmentation, churn reason mining from tickets, consistent metric dictionaries

4. Compliance-ready knowledge management

   • Goal: one source of truth for disclosures, risk statements, and metric definitions
   • What to look for: versioning, permissions, citation trails, policy acknowledgement logs

A useful rule: if an AI tool can’t show where a number came from, don’t base public-facing statements on it.

A practical “dual-listing readiness” checklist for growth teams

You don’t need to behave like a listed company today. But you should stop building processes that will collapse under listing-level scrutiny.

1) Standardise your metrics before you scale spend

Pick definitions now and stick to them:

• ARR / MRR (gross vs net)
• churn (logo vs revenue)
• CAC (fully loaded vs media-only)
• payback (gross margin adjusted)

If your Singapore and overseas teams use different definitions, fix that first. Marketing dashboards that don’t reconcile with finance are a liability.

2) Build a narrative that survives US comparison

US investors will benchmark you against public comps. Prepare for questions like:

• Why are your margins structurally different?
• Is your growth durable without subsidies?
• What’s your realistic TAM in APAC, and how do you win it?

Strong answers require data, not slogans.

3) Treat forward-looking statements like product claims

With a forward-looking statements safe harbour concept on the table, teams may get more comfortable discussing guidance and projections. Good. But do it like a responsible operator.

A simple internal rule:

• If you can’t explain the model and assumptions in one page, you shouldn’t publish the projection.

4) Make your “IPO content” reusable for regional growth

Here’s the upside: listing-grade materials are not wasted work. They become:

• enterprise sales credibility decks
• partner due diligence packs
• regional expansion playbooks
• hiring narratives for senior talent

If you build them well, they strengthen your Singapore startup marketing across APAC.

Common questions founders are asking right now

Will this create more SGX listings?

It increases the odds for a specific profile: large, credible issuers that can meet Nasdaq standards and want Singapore access too. The S$2B market cap threshold signals that GLB is not meant for early-stage startups.

Does this help smaller startups at all?

Indirectly, yes. When the ecosystem builds capabilities for cross-border listings—bankers, issue managers, compliance talent—it tends to spill over into better financing options, sharper reporting standards, and stronger global storytelling norms.

What’s the biggest execution risk?

The Straits Times report notes industry concerns: the GLB’s success depends on market momentum and on having enough issue managers, underwriters, and placement agents who understand both US and Singapore requirements.

From an operator’s view: the bigger risk is internal readiness. If your metrics, governance, and messaging aren’t aligned, regulatory alignment won’t save you.

What to do next (if you’re serious about regional scale)

The MAS and SGX RegCo proposals to facilitate dual listings on SGX and Nasdaq are a signal: Singapore wants companies to scale globally without abandoning the home market. For marketing leaders, that means your job is expanding too. You’re not just generating leads; you’re building a story that can stand up in multiple markets and under investor scrutiny.

If you’re planning APAC expansion in 2026, start with the basics: clean data, consistent metrics, and AI-enabled reporting you can trust. Then build the narrative on top. The companies that win in public markets usually look boring operationally—and that’s a compliment.

Where does this leave your startup: are you building a growth engine that’s easy to explain, or one that only makes sense inside your dashboards?