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September 23, 2026
By Hatch
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By the end of Dimension X, a startup walks away with one thing: a proof-of-concept (POC), co-created with public safety stakeholders and tested on-site in Singapore. That's a deliberately narrower target than a pilot or a contract, and it's what makes the outcome achievable.
For founders considering joining the programme, the distinction matters. Here is how the process moves from a real operational challenge to a tested POC, and what may happen afterwards.
Each Dimension X Challenge Statement comes from somewhere specific: a problem that an operational stakeholder inside Singapore's Home Team is actually dealing with right now.
Each challenge has an owner, known as a Champion, who understands the operating environment and the capability required. Founders apply by explaining how their existing technology could solve, or be adapted to solve, that need.
Sophistication doesn't guarantee a spot. If the proposed tech solution doesn't map onto the operational context, its maturity won't save it. The reverse also happens: technology from another industry can get selected, because the team showed, credibly, how it could solve the particular challenge.
That challenge-led structure is one of the principal differences between Dimension X’s open innovation challenge, and conventional accelerator programmes.
Applicants select the relevant Challenge Statement and submit information about their company, technology, team, and proposed approach.
If their technology does not fit a published Challenge Statement directly, applicants may apply under the Out-of-the-Box Innovative Technologies category. If selected through this route, Hatch will match the startup with a related challenge owner to champion the proof-of-concept development.
We keep the initial application focused on the key question: how can the startup’s deep-tech solution address, or be adapted to address, a public safety challenge?
A strong application combines four elements:
The panel isn't scoring for technical sophistication alone. They're checking whether the proposed solution fits what the challenge owner actually needs, on the ground, inside real constraints.
Applications are evaluated by a panel comprising our Hatch team, Home Team challenge owners and relevant technical experts from HTX, the Home Team Science and Technology Agency.
Shortlisted applicants progress through online pitching. Finalists may then meet challenge owners directly to understand the problem in greater depth before submitting a more detailed proposal for final selection.
The panel doesn't rate an application on one scale. Our team is looking at programme and business readiness. The end-users from the Home Team and HTX are asking whether the tech is relevant for its application to the challenge, and whether the technology can do what it claims to.
For a closer look at the criteria and decision process, read how Dimension X evaluates applications.
Selected startups sign a formal written agreement with us.
Each participant receives S$100,000 prize money. We don't take equity, and startups keep their IP outright.
Funding is disbursed in two tranches:
The funding is intended to cover both POC development costs and the required travel to Singapore. No separate travel allowance is provided.
Participation in Dimension X is also non-exclusive. A startup can participate in other accelerator or innovation programmes concurrently, provided the team remains committed to fulfilling its Dimension X requirements.
The programme begins with a one-week, in-person onboarding period in Singapore. This gives the startup, its Champion and relevant technical stakeholders an opportunity to translate the Challenge Statement into a focused POC plan.
The team maps out what needs to be built and what can be adapted from existing work. Then it defines what has to be demonstrated when testing begins and ends over the programme’s duration of four months.
The journey of UK startup LIVR shows why that operational context matters. LIVR entered Dimension X with immersive technology previously used in media and entertainment. Working with HTX's Human Factors and Simulation Centre of Expertise (HFS CoE) and the Singapore Prison Service, it built a responsive AI-avatar training system to support the rehabilitation of people with drug dependencies.
The solution had to work offline. It had to respond to user behaviour in real time, and additionally, to reflect Singapore's linguistic and cultural context - Singlish, local references, the specifics of how people here actually talk. None of that was in LIVR's original product. It came out of four months working with end-users within the operational environment.
Startups do not need to remain in Singapore throughout the development period, and can develop parts of the POC remotely depending on the arrangement with the respective end-users.
However, the process is collaborative rather than hands-off. Champions work with startups through regular touchpoints and joint technical reviews - HTX scientists and engineers provide technical guidance, while operational end-users explain how the technology needs to perform once it's actually in use.
This feedback loop often brings requirements involving resilience, portability, safety, language, user behaviour or compatibility with existing systems. The goal is a working POC that answers the challenge owner's actual operational need, not a polished demo of the startup's original tech solution.
Global applicants can find further practical details in the Dimension X FAQ, including travel and participation requirements.
Participants return to Singapore for a separate one-week trip at the end of the programme.
The POC is tested on-site to demonstrate whether it can meet the intended requirements in a relevant environment. Participants also present at Demo Day to an audience that may include Home Team decision-makers, public safety agencies, system integrators, industry partners, investors and other members of the innovation ecosystem.
However it is important to note that finishing the POC and presenting at Demo Day doesn't guarantee procurement approval or a pilot.
Dimension X doesn't automatically roll into a pilot stage. After the programme, we stay involved: advisory support, and help moving a successful POC toward further development, an operational trial, or, eventually, deployment.
Across our past cohorts, close to 40% of POCs have attracted follow-on interest for the next phase. This may involve further development through the Rapid Innovation Framework (RIF) or a new agreement to purchase or license the solution.
Approximately half of these follow-on opportunities are already under contract. Progress depends on the POC’s performance, continuing operational need, agency priorities and the decisions required for further trial or procurement projects.
Speechmatics provides one example of what that pathway can look like. After participating in Dimension X Cohort 2, its speech-recognition technology was adapted for Singapore's multilingual environment, including local accents, Singlish, background noise and overlapping speakers. That work later became a deployed public safety solution, and eventually grew into a broader multilingual initiative beyond it.
None of this is a guarantee. It's a structured way to test whether a solution actually works in the environment it's meant for, and whether the end-user finds value in pursuing and testing further once the initial POC has been completed.
See what happens after applying to Dimension X for a realistic stage-by-stage timeline.
Startups looking for that kind of on-the-ground validation can register their interest for Dimension X.
Whether you are building breakthrough technologies or are seeking innovations for real-world challenges, as long as you are interested in advancing the future of public safety, we want to hear from you.
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