Flourish Ventures secures $350m in new funding
Flourish Ventures, a US-based emerging markets financial technology investor with a strong Asia focus, has secured USD 350m for future deployments from its sole LP, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
It brings Flourish’s assets under management to USD 850m, including USD 200m in portfolio investments and USD 300m in capital seeded at the time of the firm’s spinout from Omidyar Network in 2019. The capital is organized as an evergreen fund.
Flourish is active across fintech categories, including embedded finance, infrastructure, banking, lending, insurance, financial regulation, financial inclusion, payments, and crypto. It has backed 71 start-ups to date, including at least 25 in South and Southeast Asia.
Standout investees in the region include Indian small business lender Indifi, which has raised more than USD 100m in private funding as of a USD 35m round last June featuring Flourish and Omidyar Network. There is also Bangladesh’s ShopUp, a B2B fintech and logistics platform that has also raised about USD 100m.
In 2021, ShopUp received a USD 75m round led by Val Ventures, a firm set up by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and also featuring Flourish. Flourish was the company’s first institutional investor, committing $500,000 in seed funding in 2018.
Flourish is led by co-founders and managing partners Arjuna Costa, Emmalyn Shaw, and Tilman Ehrbeck. All three were formerly partners at Omidyar Network. They have also variously worked for Lehman Brothers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Oak Investment Partners, Morgan Stanley, and the International Monetary Fund.
“The work of our portfolio companies has helped improve the financial well-being of more than 250m people and businesses worldwide. However, we realize there is still plenty more to be done – especially in light of the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic, global conflicts, and climate shocks that are causing alarming increases in household vulnerability,” Costa, Shaw, and Ehrbeck, said in a statement.
“Digital financial services are lifelines for people and businesses facing emergencies like a health crisis or a natural disaster, as they facilitate access to social safety net programs, payments, credit, and even healthcare.”
More on North America
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.