Temasek-backed VC firm Vertex Ventures closes third fund for India, SE Asia

Vertex plans to continue its strategy of investing in early-stage tech companies

Temasek-backed Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India (Vertex), an early-stage venture capital firm backed by Temasek Holdings, has raised $210 million for its third fund, exceeding its target of $150 million to close at $210 million. Vertex also announced a final close for the fund. 

The fundraise for Vertex comes on the heels of multiple growing successes in its previous portfolio, most notably, Grab, which raised $2.5 billion from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing in July 2017. Vertex SEA/India is also the first institutional investor in notable companies in the region including Patsnap, M17/Paktor, and Reebonz. It is also an early investor in Indian companies such as FirstCry, XPressBees, and Yatra. Fund III will continue Vertex’s strategy of investing in promising, disruptive and transformational opportunities and build them into global champions.  

Commenting on the development, Kee Lock Chua, Managing Partner of Vertex SEA/India said: “We were happy with the strong interest we received from investors towards deploying capital in startups in this region. In addition to Singapore and India, countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have accelerated their support for the startup and Venture Capital ecosystem. We are thankful to our investors who believe in this opportunity and have supported us.”

The combined team stretching across three main offices in Bangalore, Singapore, and Indonesia bring decades of investing and operating experience in SEA, India, China, and USA. The firm will operate out of its offices in Singapore, Bangalore, and Jakarta. 

Joo Hock Chua, Managing Partner said: “Vertex is the oldest and most experienced venture-capital firm in this region. In addition to our current offices, we will expand our presence to other SEA cities in the near future to better access local opportunities. As always, we will continue to identify early trends and back the best entrepreneurs. ”

Vertex plans to continue its strategy of investing in early-stage technology companies in SEA and India across Enterprise Technology, Financial Technology and Consumer Internet. Some recent Singapore investments include Validus (SME Digital Lending), Turnkey Lender (SaaS for credit assessment and loan management), SpaceMob (Collaborative Workspaces) and InstaRem (Platform for International Money Transfer). It’s recent India based investments include Synup (Digital Marketing for Local Businesses), Flutura (Industrial IOT Analytics), Ace Turtle (Omni-Channel Order Management) and Cloudcherry (Customer Experience Management SaaS).

Ben Mathias, Managing Partner said: “We will continue our strategy of investing in India founded technology companies that we can help scale globally. Vertex SEA/India is part of the global network of Vertex funds. By being part of the global network, we are well positioned to spot global trends and back them early. It also gives us the ability to open many doors for our portfolio companies that both bring them new business opportunities as well as grow their teams across the world.”

Vertex Ventures SEA/India is one of five major funds in a network of funds with the brand Vertex Ventures. These funds each focus on investments in their region and industry focus. With the combined regional expertise and global reach, each team can leverage on a broad view of innovation across the world.

Vertex SEA/India is by far the most established network member of the Vertex Venture Holdings group. Vertex SEA Fund I (2010 vintage) and Fund II (2014 vintage) are fully funded by Temasek Holdings via Vertex Venture Holdings. Fund III is the first fund with external Limited Partners (LP).  Vertex SEA/India invests in high growth companies seeking their first institutional funding across Asia (ex-China). 

Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, a member of Temasek Holdings, focuses on venture capital investment opportunities in the information technology and healthcare markets, primarily through our global family of direct investment venture funds. Headquartered in Singapore, we collaborate with a network of global investors who specialise in local markets.  The Vertex Global network comprises Silicon Valley, China, Israel, India, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.