Formerly known as NSI Ventures, Singapore-based investment firm Openspace Ventures has closed its second fund at US$135 million from Singapore investment arm Temasek, private markets firm StepStone Group, and other limited partners, including a mix of family offices, insurance companies, pension funds, and university endowments from the US, Australia, Europe, Japan, China, Korea, and Singapore, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
To date, including its first fund of US$90 million, the firm has secured US$225 million in committed capital from its limited partners, excluding managed co-investments, it added.
Openspace, founded by Hian Goh and Shane Chesson in 2014, typically makes Series A and B investments with a ticket size of US$3 million to US$5 million. It is looking to invest in startups working within the fintech, healthtech, edtech consumer applications and cloud-based solution markets.
Its portfolio of 19 companies includes Indonesian on-demand services company Go-Jek, which went on to be valued at US$5 billion as of February; e-tailer Love Bonito; table reservations company Chope; and Indian chapati-making machine Rotimatic.
Openspace claims that it has helped raised more than US$2.6 billion in follow-on investments for its portfolio companies, including 13 Series B rounds.
The venture capital firm has a headcount of 16 employees, including staffers in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Openspace Ventures now comprises of a team of 16 including on-ground resources in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It also has a full-time team of people who take on more of an advisory role and are tasked with helping its portfolio companies with tech, marketing, human resources, legal and finance issues.
A spokeswoman from Openspace tells KrASIA that the market has definitely gotten more mature since 2014, with more Series A and B investors, both locally and from all around the world.
Speaking of future exits, the firm expects more M&As with an increased “inbound strategic interest” from Chinese, US, Japanese and Australia firms looking to expand their presence in this region, she adds.
A number of Openspace’s portfolio companies are also preparing for IPOs, she shares. Additionally, it can also go the route of “secondary selldowns” at a later stage financing round. “Several of our companies are of the size and profile where we have a chance to vend our early stage positions at good valuations,” she says.
Goh said that Openspace will “continue to be very hands-on in building value” in its portfolio, including working with its investees to “solve complex on-ground regional execution issues”.
Goh is the founder of Asian Food Channel, a broadcaster he sold to US company Scripps Interactive in April 2013 for US$66 million. Chesson was an investment banker, formerly responsible for the technology investment banking business at Citigroup Asia-Pacific.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad
