Australia's Square Peg backs Singapore wealth manager

Burda Principal Investments and Eight Roads Ventures also contributed. Eight Roads led a $12 million Series B last year alongside Asia Capital & Advisors. Earlier investors include Singapore’s Rozario family office.

StashAway’s core offering is a personalized portfolio management service automated by a robo-advisor. The idea is to maximize clients’ long-term returns while keeping each individual’s specific risk exposure constant through changing economic cycles.

In 2018, the company expanded into Malaysia, where it claims to be the only Singaporean robo-advisor to accept the country’s Supplementary Retirement Scheme Fund for investments. It also offers a financial education program called StashAway Academy.

The deal highlights a growing interest in Southeast Asia for Square Peg, which recently participated in a $27 million round for Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere. Meanwhile, Tushar Roy, a partner at the VC firm, has confirmed plans to open an expansion office in Singapore.

"From day one we've been trying to validate a thesis that it's an interesting market with great growth potential and we can access great investments there and we can convince great founders to get us to invest in them,” Roy told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Square Peg has made at least eight investments in the region since its inception in 2012, according to AVCJ Research. These include e-scooter sharing company Neuron Mobility, e-commerce player Bellabox, digital credit service FinAccel, restaurant app Chope, and Kaodim, a professional services marketplace in Malaysia.

The firm’s highest-profile investment in the region is PropertyGuru, a Singapore-based real estate portal considered a category leader with a valuation in excess of $835 million. The company failed to get traction with an IPO in Australia last year. 

Square Peg is currently raising its third fund, which received an initial A$350 million ($249 million) in commitments last month from a group including local superannuation funds Hostplus and AustralianSuper. The firm closed its second fund at A$340 million last year. It is considered the best capitalized VC in Australia with more than A$1 billion under management.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Early-stage
• GPs
• Singapore
• Square Peg Capital
• Burda Principal Investments
• Eight Roads
• Financial Services