Altara raises $130m for Southeast Asia VC fund

The vehicle, launched in September 2020 with a target of USD 100m, will make sector-agnostic investments in 20-25 tech start-ups across Southeast Asia. LPs include institutional funds, sovereign wealth funds, financial services institutions, corporations, and family offices.

Koh (pictured), who currently sits on the board of GIC, established Altara with fellow general partners Chow Boon Tan and Kiat Wang Seow. The trio had invested together since 2006 under the name Credence Partners.

Upon relaunch as Altara, Gavin Teo and Dave Ng, both previously of B Capital Group, joined the firm as general partners. Huiting Koh, previously a brand manager at Unilever, was recruited as a partner and chief marketing officer last year.

Boon Hwee Koh started his career in 1977 at Hewlett-Packard where he served as managing director in Singapore from 1985 to 1990. The following year, he teamed up with Tan and Seow to create US electronics components maker Omni Industries, which was acquired by Canadian counterpart Celestica for USD 890m in 2001.

Altara claims that each of its general partners was once a founder or early executive in a company that generated over USD1bn in IPO proceeds in Asia or the US. They have collectively invested in more than 100 companies across enterprise technology, consumer internet, financial services, logistics, education, and healthcare.

Standout portfolio companies include Singapore-based financial technology providers StashFin and Tonik. StashFin raised a USD 40m Series B round last year featuring the likes of KKR and Tencent Holdings. Tonik, the first all-digital bank in the Philippines, raised a USD 131m Series B last week led by Sequoia Capital India and Prosus Ventures.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• GPs
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• Singapore
• Altara Ventures
• TMT