Vertex Ventures raises an initial corpus of $230M for its SEA & India Fund IV
Fund IV will back early-stage technology startups in financial services, enterprise, and consumers internet sectors.
Vertex Ventures, an early-stage venture capital arm of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings, has made the first close of its Southeast Asia and India-focussed Fund IV, at $230 million. The firm expects to do a final close of the fund over the next few months.
Most of the investors from its third fund, including Cathay Financial Holding Co., have invested in the new fund. Vertex had raised $210 million in 2016 for its Fund III.
Commenting on the development, Kee Lock CHUA, Managing Partner of Vertex SEA/India said,
“We were happy with the strong interest we received from investors towards deploying capital in startups in this region. In addition to Singapore and India, countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia have accelerated their support for the startup and venture capital ecosystem. We are especially grateful to our Fund III investors who have continued their support in Fund IV and to the new investors that have shown confidence in us by participating in the first closing.”
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The fundraise for Vertex comes on the heels of multiple growing successes in its portfolio including Grab, Patsnap, M17, FirstCry, XPressBees, InstaRem and Validus. Fund IV will back early-stage technology startups in financial services, enterprise, and consumers internet sectors.
With offices in Singapore, Bengaluru, and Jakarta, the Fund IV will continue to invest in Series A rounds with an amount of between $2 and $6 million in about 30 companies. It is primarily focussed on Singapore, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and other emerging hubs of innovation in this region.
Ben Mathias, Managing Partner said,
“Our unique strength is in our value-add to our portfolio. By fully leveraging both Temasek’s and our global network, we are able to help our entrepreneurs in cross-border expansion and door-opening relationships with partners and customers.”
Some of its recent investments in India include Licious (online farm-to-fork meat brand), Kissht (digital lending platform), FirstCry.com (online baby products retailer), InstaReM (cross-border digital payments startup, and Hansel.io (mobile app management platform).
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