Official Record
Deal focus: Fujitsu Ventures updates ancient grains
Fujitsu is bringing blockchain to the rice industry with a ramped up corporate VC agenda. Digital transformation is the goal; food security and sustainable trade are the outcomes
Deal focus: Targeting an insurance pain point
India’s Digit Insurance has achieved a valuation of $3.5 billion in four years with a thesis that simple is better – and more trustworthy. COVID-19 added more rocket fuel
Deal focus: Hefu does dining at scale
China restaurant chain Hefu Noodle caters to a lunchtime office-worker client base from a network of central kitchens. Meridian Capital is one of several investors sold on the expansion opportunity
Deal focus: Investcorp bides its time with Linkedcare
The GP spent six months scrutinizing China’s Linkedcare prior to leading a $70 million round, confident that its global insights into software, healthcare, and supply chains were key differentiators
Deal focus: Bringing specialization to healthcare
TE Asia Healthcare Partners, a Southeast Asia-focused investor backed by TPG Capital, has launched a long-term plan to add much-needed cardiology hospitals to Indonesia’s healthcare mix
Fund focus: Hive Ventures’ Taiwan AI thesis gets nod
Taiwan’s Hive Ventures managed to attract significant local support for its debut fund despite having a sparse network in its home market. Its focus on early-stage AI didn’t hurt
Deal focus: Indian cartoons poised for proliferation
NewQuest Capital’s acquisition of Cosmos-Maya from KKR-backed Emerald Media punctuates a crystallizing opportunity set in Indian animation. The next step is going global
Deal focus: LocoNav targets gap in fleet digitization
The rapidly modernizing fleet management industry has seen surprisingly little progress in terms of driver and dispatcher services. Global VCs see a solution in India’s LocoNav
Deal focus: Carro prioritizes car financing as ecosystem enabler
Southeast Asia’s Carro has achieved critical mass as a used car trading platform, but the start-up regards financial services as the key growth area. It is now backed by SoftBank Vision Fund’s considerable heft
Deal focus: TR Capital doubles down on China tech
Secondaries specialist TR Capital has established a base in Shenzhen with a view to sourcing more deals in China’s red-hot technology sector. Online used car trading platform Bochewang is the latest example
Deal focus: Australia’s ENA hits COVID-19 in the nose
Australian investors see hope in ENA Respiratory, a nasal spray specialist aiming to complement global COVID-19 vaccine programs with an immune system-boosting product
Deal focus: Content to the masses
Xiaoe Tong gained traction during the pandemic in China as channel for educational content providers, big and small, to reach their customers. It is also a SaaS player that stands firm on product standardization
Deal focus: A very modern Masan
Baring Private Equity Asia backed Masan Group’s bold plan to transform grocery in Vietnam because it believes the company can create an integrated consumer-retail business that is unique by Asian standards
Fund focus: Plugging ASEAN family offices into global tech
Family offices have helped iGlobe Partners renew a lean and restrained deep tech VC mandate. A global investee network is hoped to facilitate overseas investments amid travel stoppages
Deal focus: Malaysia’s Tealive taps PE scaling expertise
Tealive, a teashop brand that has exploded across Malaysia in recent years, is ready for a concerted international expansion. Creador has been brought in to guide the process
Deal focus: Chubby Bear thinks beyond marketplaces
B2B trading platform Chubby Bear not only wants to drive consolidation in China’s renovation materials space, but also provide exclusive products and supply chain services to contractors
Deal focus: TEC goes back to the office
KKR and Tiga Investments have acquired Hong Kong’s The Executive Centre at a time when flexible office space is coming into focus, but expansion ambitions need to remain in check
Deal focus: CVC gets intimate with A Bathing Ape
CVC Capital Partners has completed a complex carve-out of Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape from diversified Hong Kong retail group I.T
Fund focus: Unicorn does the hard yards
Six-year-old Unicorn Capital Partners has closed its latest China VC vehicle at the hard cap of $450 million, proving there is demand for fund-of-funds that offer something different
Fund focus: Glory’s deep-tech thesis gains traction
Having initially struggled to win over LPs with a strategy focused on capital-intensive deep-tech assets, Glory Ventures was helped by US-China technology decoupling and the rise of new infrastructure
Deal focus: NiKang pursues hard-to-drug targets
With big pharma scaling back early-stage discovery, CBC Group is keen to incubate biotech start-ups developing drugs from scratch. NiKang Therapeutics is the first to secure wider investor attention
Deal focus: Hahn embarks on Korea dairy turnaround
Beleaguered by a string of scandals and unable to turn the tide of negative publicity, the family owner of Namyang Dairy Products opted to sell to private equity. His first call was to Hahn & Company
Deal focus: Navis targets hospitals in the hinterlands
The Southeast Asian manager will commit up to $100 million to hospital roll-up strategy intended to address rising demand for private healthcare in Malaysia’s underserved territories
Deal focus: Novo spreads its wings in Southeast Asia
In Hummingbird Bioscience and Halodoc, Novo Holdings believes it has backed a potential global leader in hard-to-drug cancer and a likely domestic champion in telemedicine and disease management