Singapore's CapBridge launches $100m VC fund

The vehicle represents the first sub-trust fund under CIT, which is backed by Clearbridge Accelerator, Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Healthios, a US-based capital market focused on the healthcare industry. Anil Ponnampalam, an executive director at Singapore’s Gordian Capital, will act as portfolio manager.

CIT and its respective sub-trust operate as a rules-based fund that invests in private securities issued by emerging growth companies curated on the CapBridge platform. It will seek exposure to pre-IPO opportunities and private placement-based co-investments led by select VC firms.

Although rules-based processes are applied in the trading of publicly-listed investments, the fund is being touted as the first example of a rules-based structure being applied to investments in venture-backed securities issued by private companies.

“What we’re trying to do from an investor perspective is open up the category of venture capital to institutional and accredited investors,” Nick Caldwell, managing director at CapBridge told AVCJ. “Traditionally, the pre-IPO category hasn’t had a significant amount of standardization around the structures, and the distribution to institutional and professional investors has been limited to whatever access points they have. We're going to be offering this fund to institutional investors, so by investing in it they get access to the asset class.”

The launch follows a commitment by Clearbridge and SGX in early 2015 to address a gap in Singapore’s post-Series A investment environment through the establishment of a novel capital-raising platform targeting small to medium-sized enterprises. It coincides with ongoing government efforts to increase private sector interest in emerging industries, including the smart nation initiative and a proposal earlier this month to simplify VC fund creation.

“SGX is a well-regulated institutional exchange, but it has not had, at least on [the Catalist board], a fair number of tech driven stocks,” added Frederick Reichenbach, president of investment and operations at CapBridge. “The trust will only do CapBridge deals and CapBridge has a pipeline of global and local comapnies that are novel in their approach to the market. Typically, it’s technology driven and they have a large value inflection in front of them.”

Set up in 2010, Clearbridge invests in the healthcare, information security and technology sectors. Its accelerator - which is backed by the National Research Foundation's Technology Incubation Scheme - provides funding, mentorship, and operational support.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Fundraising
• Singapore
• Venture
• Growth capital