Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, made the first close of its fourth Southeast Asia fund, raising another USD 230 million. The VC firm says it will finalize this fourth fund in the coming months.
The company previously raised USD 210 million for its third Southeast Asia fund. Vertex says its Fund III posted a net internal rate of return (IRR) of 45.2% as of December and that many of its investors have returned to back this fourth round.  Publicly named backers of Fund III include Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank and Cathay Life Insurance. In all, the Vertex Global Network has six major funds.
Vertex Ventures’ notable older investments include Grab, P2B lending platform Validus, digital cross-border payments company InstaRem, Asian live-streaming service M17, and crypto exchange platform Binance. Insurtech startup Sunday, social ticketing platform Get, and point of sale platform Storehub are some of the newer addition to the firm’s portfolio.
With this fourth fund, Vertex plans to continue backing early-stage technology startups in enterprise technology, consumer internet, and financial technology verticals across Southeast Asia and India.
Other venture capitalists are also looking at the same market, but Vertex is one of the bigger ones by fund size. Golden Gate Ventures, for instance, is seeking to close a new USD 200 million growth fund jointly with South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group. Seed investor Gree recently rebranded as Strive and completed its first close of a new USD 130 million fund. East Ventures has partnered with Sinar Mas and Yahoo Japan targeting a new USD 150 million growth-stage fund. Another Indonesian VC, Kejora, partnering the South Korean Intervest, has also successfully closed a USD 100 million Southeast Asian fund.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad
