TNB Ventures, Aura Group close $23m VC fund

Backers include institutional investors, regional corporations, family offices, and several high net worth individuals. The plan is to invest in 10-15 companies with a focus on areas including advanced manufacturing, internet-of-things, robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality and virtual reality.

The fund, known as TNB Aura, is a co-investment partner of Enterprise Singapore, a Ministry of Trade organization that promotes small and medium-sized enterprises. This collaboration is part of the Startup SG Equity co-investment scheme, which facilitates investments of up to S$4 million from government entities SG Innovate and Seeds Capital.

TNB Aura said it would primarily target software-as-a-service and hardware-as-a-service companies with established traction and proven teams that are at an inflection point of accelerated expansion. Investments to date include enterprise software company TradeGecko, marketing platform provider Ematic Solutions, both based in Singapore.

The firm has also backed an unnamed online-to-offline consumer electronics distributor in Vietnam. Separately, it has agreed to invest up to S$3 million in selected start-ups participating in a Vietnam smart city development drive organized by Mekong Business Initiative, a joint venture of Asian Development Bank and the Australian government. 

“Our hands-on approach is designed to maximize the potential of exceptional companies,” Charles Wong, a managing partner at TNB Aura, said in a statement. “We focus on identifying high-caliber teams applying unique technologies via defensible business models and support their transformation into long-term sustainable businesses.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• Technology
• Singapore
• manufacturing
• artificial intelligence