Genesis starts Southeast Asia venture debt business

Genesis is led by Ben Benjamin, an angel investor in Southeast Asia and non-executive director at the Singapore branch of Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, along with Jeremy Loh and Martin Tang, who previously worked together at DBS Bank's venture debt platform DBS Venture Growth Partners. Loh earlier headed the Silicon Valley office of EDBI, the investment arm of Singapore's Economic Development Board.

According to a release, the firm will focus on fast-growing businesses that are gaining traction but lack the history to obtain bank financing to reach the next stage of growth. Genesis has already made three investments, backing Singapore-based cybersecurity start-up Horangi, online restaurant Grain, and Indonesian co-working space provider GoWork.

"We expect venture debt to become a mainstream source of financing for companies across Southeast Asia," said Loh. "We see a robust pipeline of companies coming through and we believe that entrepreneurs value the need for a judicious balance of debt and equity to fund their expansion."

Venture debt is still relatively uncommon in Asia, compared to the US, where debt has accounted for 15% of total venture investments since 2009. However, investors are reporting growing interest in the asset class, particularly as the region's increasingly sophisticated entrepreneurs appreciate the ability to raise capital without diluting existing shareholders' equity stakes.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was one of the first movers in the space, having entered the region in 2008 via its India subsidiary SVB India Finance – now called InnoVen Capital and jointly owned by Singapore's Temasek Holdings and United Overseas Bank. InnoVen is now active in Southeast Asia and China as well.

Other players in India include Trifecta Capital and Alteria Capital – a spin-off of InnoVen – while Australia's OneVentures recently reached a first close of A$45 million ($32 million) on its debut venture debt fund. It claims this is the country's first dedicated venture debt vehicle.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• GPs
• Financing
• Singapore
• Structured finance