Investors are encouraged to keep experimenting in quantifying and qualifying the real-world outcomes of their sustainable investment programs.
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We wrote an editor’s letter and sent various notifications to subscribers, so hopefully this email is not catching you completely unawares. But for the uninitiated, welcome to the AVCJ Weekly Digest. It includes links to the editorial content we routinely produce over a seven-day period. However, rather than deliver it to you as a weekly PDF journal, from now on we ask that you click on the links in this email and read the stories online. The goal is to become nimbler and more flexible in our approach, and in doing so, offer a better user experience. Any feedback would be most gratefully received. |
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TWO SIDES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
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Fundraising for Southeast Asia-focused technology strategies has begun 2021 briskly. Asia Partners collected $384 million for its debut growth fund, Openspace Ventures announced a final close of $200 million on its second early-stage vehicle (more on that below), while B Capital Group indicated in a filing that it raised $126 million for a seed fund. Together, they have accumulated more than one-third of the capital committed to VC managers in all of 2020. The other recent announcement of note is that EV Growth is dissolving its co-GP structure. East Ventures will serve as sole manager, with SMDV, a VC unit of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, and Yahoo Japan-owned YJ Capital stepping back. This might be described as the other side of the Southeast Asia VC story. Much of the money raised to date has come from corporates and families, and these investors are not known for their stability across vintages. “When the joint venture was announced, a lot of us were shaking our heads,” one industry participant observes. “Imagine being on an IC [investment committee] and trying to find common ground between an Indonesian family office and a Japanese strategic.” |
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Coupang’s $4.55 billion IPO has made several investors very rich on paper. They include Altos Ventures, one of the Korean e-commerce giant’s earliest backers, and a VC firm on a hot streak. In the space of two weeks, the Korea and US-focused investor has seen Coupang and US-based game platform Roblox list with market capitalizations of $75 billion and $38 billion, respectively. It was also one of the first investors in Korean food delivery business Woowa Brothers, which is nearing a $4 billion sale to Delivery Hero. |
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 Lindsay Wright, CEO of the newly launched funds management unit at Sun Hung Kai & Co, is helping reposition a Hong Kong financial services mainstay as a tech-focused alternatives investor. Read more |
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 Employees Provident Fund’s $600 million shariah-compliant co- investment mandate suggests increasing institutional appetite for Islamic finance solutions in private equity. Is the industry ready? Read more |
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 Openspace Ventures launched its $200 million third fund comfortable in the knowledge that the first two were top-quartile performers. IPOs, trade sales and partial secondary exits have all played a role.
Read more |
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 Having launched his own start-up on campus, Song Yao of See Fund is returning to China’s universities to look for the next generation of hard technology unicorns. Read more |
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 Impact specialist LeapFrog Investments will use Temasek’s financial backing to broaden its reach - in terms of sectors and geographies - as well as to anchor future funds. Read more |
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 China-based MetaApp has created an online platform that connects games with relevant gamers. Community building and social interaction are its watchwords. Read more |
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CHINA'S NEW MARKET LEADERS
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What is the optimal size for a China country fund? Ten years ago, Hony Capital and CDH Investments were pushing new bounds, but they have been supplanted by younger rivals like Boyu Capital, Primavera Capital Group, and FountainVest Partners. All three managers are currently in the market, targeting $6 billion, $4 billion, and $2.8 billion, respectively. If they hit these marks within the calendar year, US dollar-denominated fundraising would be about halfway towards matching its record annual total of $26.8 billion, set in 2018.
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China private equity fundraising - key firms
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All of the trends featured here were sourced from AVCJ's proprietary database, AVCJ Research, featuring comprehensive information on private equity deals, fundraises and exits.
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