Integra closes second Southeast Asia VC fund on $90m
Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm Integra Partners confirmed it has closed its second fund on USD 90m.
The fund is anchored by Germany’s DEG, US-based DFC, Norway’s Norfund, and France’s Tikehau Capital. It marks the first time Tikehau has invested in a Southeast Asia VC manager.
Integra raised USD 50m for its debut in 2018 and claims the fund ranks in the top 5% amongst its peers in terms of distributions to paid-in capital (DPI). Exits include Singapore and Netherlands-based cybersecurity platform ReaQta, which was acquired by IBM in November 2021.
The firm invests from the pre-Series A round to Series B stages, with South Asia targeted opportunistically. Financial technology is the core theme and viewed as means of adding value and improving inclusivity in various sectors. Going forward, this will include digital health.
“We included digital health in the mandate for Fund II as we see it as a test case to prove our thesis that fintech is becoming a horizontal layer across all sectors and is embedded in all industries,” Chris Kaptein, a managing partner at Integra, said in a statement.
“For example, in emerging markets across Southeast Asia, access to healthcare is often a financial problem as medical inflation becomes a pressing concern. Similarly, we see applications of fintech in almost every sector - e-commerce, AI, climate, logistics, education and beyond.”
Integra currently has a 17-strong team across Singapore, Philippines, India, and Pakistan, and is planning a regional expansion. To this end, it recently launched the “Win With Women” venture partner programme in Vietnam and Indonesia.
The firm has backed 27 companies to date, including e-commerce aggregator Graas (Singapore), open finance provider Brankas (Indonesia), and institutional foreign exchange platform Spark Systems (Singapore). It has invested two start-ups in the payroll and wage access niche: Wagely of Indonesia and Vietnam-based Gimo.
Some of the most recent investment activity includes participation in a USD 10.7m Series B last month for Philippines-based HR platform Sprout Solutions. That round also featured SoftBank Ventures Asia and GSR Ventures.
“Integra’s network spans the entire ecosystem including financial institutions like banks, insurers and large corporations. This brings strategic value-add to our founders as they form commercial partnerships,” Kaptein added.
“Especially in an environment where global investors are concerned about feasibility of exits and performance in Southeast Asia markets, having such an ecosystem increases our exit visibility as a fund manager since these institutions may one day become potential acquirers as well.”
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