Singapore, Australia VCs team up for $125m fund

The plan aims to combine Hatcher's artificial intelligence-supported investment targeting methodologies with BlueChilii's start-up development experience to reduce risk in early-stage deployment. Fundraising is ongoing, with Asian and Middle Eastern family offices said to be among the LPs currently finalizing commitments.

Hatcher launched the vehicle, known as H2, in 2015 with a view to attracting more family offices and high net worth individuals to VC by offering a more liquid fund structure. It will back BlueChilli accelerator cohorts, providing $200,000 of follow-on funding to each company that raises additional capital following completion of the program.  

"The BlueChilli team is over the moon because we can finally work with our start-ups in a way that puts the founders first, and we've already seen their speed to market double," Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, CEO of BlueChilli, said in a statement. "We've been refining our model for six years and this is a breakthrough we've all been waiting for."

Founded in 2011, BlueChilli is considered the largest accelerator in Australia with 113 start-ups invested to date via an independently managed VC arm. It typically deploys in a range of A$50,000-250,000 ($39,000-194,000) per deal. Previous investments include GetSwift, a Sydney-listed software provider focused on the logistics sector that received $24 million last year from a group including IFM Investors.

Hatcher has invested $128 million across more than 2,000 deals since 2013 with partners in 168 countries. It claims to achieve more predictable returns by leveraging machine learning technology in its deal sourcing as well as an accelerator-supported approach that benefits from tax efficiencies associated with an exchange-traded fund structure.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Australasia
• Fundraising
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• Australia
• seed