Weekly digest - May 24 2023
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24 May 2023
Kerogen Capital is trying to plot a more nuanced course into energy transition than building renewables. It is one of many nascent specialists in the space.
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Q&A
THOMAS TSAO OF GOBI PARTNERS
 Thomas Tsao, co-founder of Gobi Partners, on Chinese investors targeting Southeast Asia, the fallout from US-China tensions, fundraising and fund strategy, and what excites him about technology.DEAL FOCUS
PRIMEMOVERS BUYS MALAYSIA MACHINIST IN DEBUT DEAL
 PrimeMovers, which spun out from Platinum Equity last year, and UK-based Lingotto Investment Management have jointly acquired Malaysian precision manufacturing company EngTek.DEAL FOCUS
INVESTCORP FINDS OPTIMAL ENTRY POINT WITH JIANUO
 Investcorp negotiated its debut China control deal in the shadow of COVID-19 but expects to see long-term gains through the target company’s exposure to electric vehicles and renewable energy.FUND FOCUS
FOREIGN LPs CREEP INTO JAPAN VC
 Japan’s Dimension has closed its first fund since spinning out from Dream Incubator, more than doubling its prior vintage and tracking increased interest among regional institutional investors. |
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By the Numbers
AVCJ RESEARCH
ASIA FINTECH REORIENTATION
Investment in China financial technology peaked in 2018 with bumper rounds of units of Alibaba Group, JD.com, and Baidu, then collapsed a year later amid a clampdown on peer-to-peer lending. Ant Group’s aborted IPO a year later ruled out a rebound.
Between 2014 and 2018, China absorbed 88% of all PE capital entering Asia fintech. For 2019 to date, its share is 7%. In China’s absence, other markets have come to the fore – notably India, Southeast Asia, and to a lesser extent Hong Kong and Australia. India and Southeast Asia accounted for two-thirds of the USD 3.4bn put to work in 2020. This share remained reasonably consistent in 2021 and 2021 but the pie was much larger – USD 14.2bn and USD 11.6bn. This dominance was underlined in the past week through significant investments in the likes of Singapore’s insurance technology specialist Bolttech and Indian payments platform PhonePe. Both have experienced rapid rises to prominence: Bolttech’s recent USD 196m round took its overall funding to more than USD 450m in the past two years; PhonePe’s USD 100m raise took its ongoing round to USD 850m against a target of USD 1bn. Both are well-established unicorns with valuations of USD 1.6bn and USD 12bn, respectively. Another common characteristic – shared with more than a few other large Asian fintech players – is the guiding presence of a parent entity. Bolttech is a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Pacific Century Group; PhonePe only recently fully separated from Flipkart and the e-commerce marketplace remains a significant shareholder. 
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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