India's Taxmantra launches Singapore VC unit, $100m fund

ProfitBoard is being positioned as a start-up-focused investment banking and private investment arm that will transact on behalf of a consortium of global investors supporting the new fund. It plans to back around 100 start-ups in India and Southeast Asia during the next three years, with a focus on deep tech areas such as artificial intelligence as well as tech-enabled education and healthcare.

Taxmantra is said to have invested $180 million in more than 150 start-ups in recent years, including Indian grocery delivery platform Swiggy, which is valued at $1.6 billion. At least 25 companies in this network appear to have been rolled into the ProfitBoard portfolio, including Swiggy and Niyo, a financial technology provider that has received investment from the likes of Tencent Holdings.

ProfitBoard expects Singapore to see an acceleration in fundraising, having called the country’s recently introduced variable capital company (VCC) structure a “game changer” for managers.

“This product is evolutionary in nature, in that the VCC draws – and builds – on certain attractive features found in existing frameworks used in other fund jurisdictions,” ProfitBoard said in a statement. “This is a masterstroke, and one which will cement Singapore’s status as a fund hub, both in Asia and the world beyond.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• GPs
• Singapore
• India