Serious branding work in Singapore is rarely paid for entirely out of the company’s own pocket. Enterprise Singapore has co-funded qualifying brand strategy projects for years, and most established SMEs know the Enterprise Development Grant by name. What is less widely understood is that 2026 changes the funding landscape twice: once in April, when Market Readiness Assistance support rose sharply, and again in the second half of the year, when the current schemes are folded into a single new grant. If a brand programme is anywhere on your plan for the next eighteen months, the timing of these changes should shape when and how you commission it.
The short answer
As of today, two schemes matter for branding. The Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) supports qualifying brand and marketing strategy projects at up to 50% of eligible costs. The Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant supports overseas market entry, including branding and marketing for a target export market, at up to 70% for eligible SMEs since 1 April 2026, capped at S$100,000 per new market.
From the second half of 2026, Enterprise Singapore will launch EDGE, a single activity-based grant that replaces EDG, MRA and the Productivity Solutions Grant. Until EDGE is implemented, the existing schemes continue to run on their current terms. Grant parameters are set by Enterprise Singapore and do change, so confirm the current terms on the EnterpriseSG site before you plan around them.
MRA at 70%: the April change
Announced at Budget 2026 and effective 1 April 2026, MRA support for SMEs rose from 50% to 70% of eligible costs. The grant is capped at S$100,000 per new market and is structured around three pillars: overseas market promotion, overseas business development, and overseas market set-up. Branding and marketing work for the target market sits squarely in the first pillar.
To qualify as an SME, a company’s group annual turnover must not exceed S$100 million, or its group employment must not exceed 200 people. The practical effect is significant: export-market branding, meaning the positioning, naming and visibility work needed to enter a new country credibly, is now the most heavily supported branding activity in the Singapore system. A programme scoped at S$60,000 for one target market can effectively cost an eligible SME S$18,000.
Export-market branding is now the most heavily supported brand work in the Singapore system. That window is worth planning around.
The market-entry brand sprint
We have packaged our export-market work to fit the way MRA now funds it. The market-entry brand sprint is a fixed-scope programme that prepares a brand for one target market, built from three components that map to what buyers in a new market actually encounter.
Positioning for the target market. How the category works there, who you displace, and the sharpest credible claim you can make as an entrant. Positioning that wins in Singapore rarely transfers unedited.
Naming and verbal identity that travel. A linguistic and cultural check of the name and messaging in the target market, and the adaptations needed so the brand reads as intended rather than as an import.
AI visibility in the target market. Buyers increasingly shortlist through AI assistants before they ever see your website. We structure the brand’s public evidence so it is found, understood and cited by the AI tools your target market uses. Our thinking on this is set out in how to get your brand mentioned by ChatGPT.
The sprint is scoped and documented to align with MRA-eligible market promotion activities, so eligible SMEs can seek support at up to 70%. As with all Enterprise Singapore grants, approval must be in place before work begins, and we build the application timeline into the programme plan. If you are weighing a market entry, talk to us about scoping it while the 70% window is open.
EDG today: up to 50%
The Enterprise Development Grant remains the workhorse for domestic brand strategy: repositioning, brand architecture, identity systems and the research that grounds them. Qualifying projects receive support of up to 50% of eligible costs. Eligibility requires the company to be registered and operating in Singapore, have at least 30% local shareholding, and be financially viable; the project itself must be a genuine capability-building exercise rather than routine marketing, and must be approved before it begins.
For consultancy-led projects, Enterprise Singapore requires the consultant to be a certified Practising Management Consultant. Vantage is PMC-certified and regularly delivers EDG-supported brand programmes, which matters less as a badge than as fluency: a consultancy that works inside the scheme knows how to scope and document a project so it stands the best chance of qualifying. We cover how grants change the project maths in our guide to branding costs in Singapore.
The new EDGE grant: what we know, and what nobody does yet
From the second half of 2026, EDGE (Enterprise Development for Growth and Expansion) replaces EDG, MRA and PSG with one activity-based scheme. Instead of navigating three grants with three sets of rules, businesses will apply once, based on the activities they intend to carry out: capability building, overseas expansion, digitalisation. Published factsheets indicate support of up to S$100,000 per year for eligible activities, and, notably, EDGE will be open to all Singapore-registered businesses, not only SMEs.
What nobody outside Enterprise Singapore knows yet is the detail: the exact support levels by activity, the qualifying criteria, and the launch date beyond “2H 2026”. Anyone selling you an “EDGE-approved” package today is ahead of the facts. What can be done honestly is preparation: we are already mapping our programmes to the activity categories EDGE is expected to cover, so that client projects can be structured for whichever scheme is open when they are ready to file. When the criteria publish, the mapping becomes an application.
Timing a project across the transition
The transition creates a genuine timing decision, and the right answer depends on the project. If you have an export-market project that is ready to scope, the case for moving now is strong: MRA at 70% is live, its terms are known, and a well-prepared application filed under a known scheme beats waiting for an unpublished one. Projects approved under the current schemes are expected to continue on the terms they were approved under, though you should confirm transition arrangements with Enterprise Singapore at the point of application.
If your project is domestic and six months or more from ready, the calculus differs. EDGE may change support levels in either direction, and its single-application structure could suit multi-activity programmes, for instance a repositioning that spans brand strategy and digital build. The sensible move is to do the scoping now, so the brief, budget and evidence base are ready, and file under whichever scheme is open when you are. What rarely makes sense is rushing a half-scoped application into the old schemes purely to beat a deadline nobody has announced.
Eligibility and approval: how it works in practice
Three practical rules hold across every Enterprise Singapore grant, current and coming. First, approval precedes work: a project that has already started is not fundable, so the application belongs in the project plan, not after it. Second, the project must build capability, meaning strategy, research and systems the business keeps, rather than routine promotion. Third, documentation decides outcomes: a clearly scoped brief, defined deliverables and a credible consultant matter more than the size of the ask.
Vantage is certified by Enterprise Singapore as a Practising Management Consultant and has delivered grant-supported brand programmes across strategy, identity and market entry. We scope every engagement so the grant case is part of the project design from day one. If you want to understand which scheme fits your situation, start a conversation and we will map it with you.