Vertex closes Southeast Asia, India fund at $305m
Vertex Ventures, a VC arm of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, has closed its fourth Southeast Asia and India fund at $305 million, beating an initial target of $230 million.
Fund IV was backed by new and existing LPs, including sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, corporates and family offices across Asia and Europe. A first close of $230 million was reached in May with support from many of the LPs in Fund III, which raised $210 million in 2017 from the likes of Thailand's Kasikornbank and Taiwan's Cathay Life Insurance. Fund III was the first to feature third-party investors.
"Vertex is one of the best performing funds in the region," said Roque Velasco, a managing partner at Galdana Ventures, an LP in Fund III and Fund IV. "We are very happy with the performance of Fund III and with the portfolio they have managed to build which is what caused us to continue our relationship in Fund IV with a larger commitment amount."
Vertex has made more than 40 investments in Southeast Asia and India. Standout portfolio companies including ride-hailing app Grab, whose ongoing Series H round has contemplated a valuation of $11 billion, and InstaRem, a Singapore-based digital payments platform that raised a $41 million Series C in March. Other investments experiencing momentum include Indian online meats marketplace Licious, and Indian financial technology developer Kissht.
It extends a spate of fundraising activity for Vertex in the past week, including a $275 million final close on the firm's fourth China fund and a $290 million final close on its debut growth-stage fund. Vertex manages six funds in total. Four of them have regional specializations, while the growth fund and a separate healthcare vehicle invest globally. Each fund is independently managed and raises most of its funds from global investors with Vertex as the anchor LP.
The new Southeast Asia and India vehicle will continue the firm's strategy of investing in Series A start-ups across enterprise technology, fintech, and consumer internet categories. This includes a hands-on approach to operations guidance that leverages connections to Temasek and a global portfolio of some 200 companies.
Deployments from the new fund are planned to begin within the year. Singapore, India, Indonesia, and Thailand will be the primary target geographies.
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