Singapore's Vertex closes debut growth fund at $290m

Vertex anchored the fund and received support from LPs including Cathay Life Insurance, Taiwan's Elan Microelectronics, an Asian sovereign wealth fund, and unnamed family offices. "The strength of the Vertex network allows investors like ourselves to be at the forefront of technological innovation and gain a deeper understanding on future implications," I-Hau Yeh, chairman of Elan, said in a statement.

The new fund will invest globally with a focus on the stronger companies already backed by Vertex's early-stage vehicles. The firm now has six funds overall, including one focused on healthcare and four regional vehicles. It raised $230 million for a Southeast Asia and India fund in May, which also received support from Cathay Life. There are about 200 portfolio companies in total, including ride-hailing app Grab and bicycle-sharing company Mobike.

"One thing that Vertex as a group does for the portfolio is really leverage on our own franchise," James Lee, a managing director at Vertex told AVCJ earlier this year, flagging a footprint across Asia, Israel and the US. "We have close operating partners in key geographies. And our close association with Temasek means that within our franchise, there's a pretty good pipeline of resources and potential business connection opportunities that we can make available."

Vertex Growth Fund targets companies seen as being at an inflection point and has made at least four investments since the beginning of 2019. These include US cybersecurity player PerimeterX, US medical devices maker Nuvaira, UK-based cancer drug developer Bicycle Therapeutics, and InstaRem, a Singapore-based digital payments platform that raised a $41 million Series C round in March that will support expansions in the UK, US and Latin America.  

There has been an acceleration in growth fundraising among Southeast Asia-focused GPs in recent years to address a shortage of capital for later stages start-ups. Other investors in this trend include Golden Gate Ventures, Gobi Ventures, Jungle Ventures, and EV Growth, a joint venture between East Ventures, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures and YJ Capital. In June, Singapore-based VC firm Asia Partners raised $70 million of its debut fund, which targets the Series C stage.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Growth
• Venture
• Singapore
• Vertex Management (II)