Telstra backs Monk's Hill Southeast Asia fund

"Normally we invest directly in companies," Matthew Koertge, managing director at Telstra, told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Investing in a fund like this is very different because we're basically committing to a pool of capital and the venture capital partners are making investment decisions from that fund."

Telstra is expected to leverage Monk's Hill's network in the region to grow businesses outside of its traditional telephone and broadband service areas, which are tipped to experience headwinds. The fund has an overall target of S$100 million ($80 million) and has already received investments from the likes of Yahoo Japan, Temasek Holdings and Cisco Investments.

The $10 million commitment from Cisco, announced in September of last year, is similar to that of Telstra, made with a view to activating Cisco's initial sensors for tech start-ups in emerging Southeast Asian markets.

The Monk's Hill fund will also support start-ups from outside the region that want to expand into the region. Specific sectors of focus include cloud computing, big data and analytics and internet applications.

Monk's Hill was one of six Singapore-based VC firms that received a total of S$60 million from the government to support VC investment in Southeast Asian tech companies.

Other recent activity in Telstra's Asia-focused pivot has included a strategic investment in Chinese cloud services provider Qiniu and the acquisition of Asian telecommunications services company Pacnet.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Fundraising
• Australasia
• LPs
• Telstra Ventures
• Monk's Hill Ventures
• Technology
• Australia
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• LPs