Thailand sets up $44m in VC funds

According to a statement, the SME Private Equity Trust Fund II has a corpus of THB500 million and will be managed by seed investor Expara Thailand. Fund III comprises the remaining THB1 billion and will be managed by Premier Advisory Group. Krungthai Asset Management will act as trustee for both vehicles.

Fund I was launched earlier this year with a corpus of THB500 million and has invested THB300 million so far in nine small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The overall THB2 billion mandate is part of the government’s Thailand 4.0 innovation agenda and expected to be completely deployed by the end of 2018.

The funds will focus on start-ups and SMEs with an emphasis on businesses that contribute to the economic growth of the country. Large public and private companies will also be considered. According to The Bangkok Post, deals will be restricted to minority stakes with a maturity of 10 years.

Exits will be transacted either by share buybacks or listings on the SET. Some 160 firms are said to have raised THB99 billion from the exchange’s SME board to date. Of these, 23 have gone on to list on the SET.

Other recent venture activity by Thai banks includes the launch of a THB1 billion fund by the VC arm of Kasikorn Bank and the establishment of a fintech accelerator by Bangkok Bank. This followed a proposed $150 million investment by the International Finance Corporation in TMB Bank and the announcement of a $50 million VC program by Siam Commercial Bank.

Thailand 4.0 aims to modernize the national economy and promote an emerging start-up ecosystem through investment in new technologies. It follows the launch of a THB20 billion venture fund by the government last year.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Growth
• Fundraising
• Thailand
• Venture