Singapore's Leo Capital targets $125m for third VC fund

Established by serial entrepreneurs Rajul Garg and Shwetank Verma in 2017, Leo raised $106 million across its first two funds.

The firm claims to invest as early as the concept stage with the flexibility to make later-stage commitments depending on factors such as sector, company traction, and the outlook for scaling. Focus areas include participative commerce, decentralized internet, global software-as-a-service, and financial technology.

Garg is best known as the founder of Pine Labs, an Indian payments player said to be valued at around $5 billion, and Meesho, India’s largest social commerce company, which was valued at $4.9 billion last month in a $570 million Series F round.

Verma made investments in education and healthcare for Clermont Group before joining Metlife Asia, where he worked on partnerships with start-ups. In between, he founded wellness media portal MyHealthMate, which was acquired by India’s Ambicare Clinics in 2016.

“Having been a founder several times over, I know firsthand the opportunity and challenges start-ups face. As a team we’re well versed on the early-stage signals that matter and are able to quickly engage in opportunities and be the first to write seed stage checks for these businesses, which we know have the right team and plan to scale,” Garg said in a statement.

Leo’s portfolio companies include Indian logistics marketplace Vahak and Singapore’s FlixStock, a fashion industry supplier specializing in artificial intelligence-generated models for demonstrating clothing for online sales. It is also an investor in US-based cloud developers’ platform LambdaTest, which received a $16 million round earlier this year.

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