Singapore-headquartered Golden Equator Capital raised USD 90 million through two private funds from undisclosed accredited and institutional investors in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, the company said in an official statement.
In Southeast Asia, the firm is known for investing in companies like Singapore proptech startup Ohmyhome and Indonesian e-commerce platform Sorabel, among others.
These two new private funds will be used to finance an undisclosed public listed company and will focus primarily on infrastructure, energy, and finance sectors, according to Golden Equator.
“In the next five years, Asia will be a strong source of growth for the global economy. This will be driven by infrastructure, energy, finance, and technology,” said Golden Equator Capital’s managing partner, Jacob Jiwon Kim.
This round of fundraising connects capital in developed Asian markets like Japan and South Korea with Southeast Asian economies where there is a significant financing gap as the Western banks increasingly scale back, Kim added. At the same time, investors from developed Asian markets view Southeast Asia as a place where their investments can potentially yield stronger returns as compared to their domestic markets.
Golden Equator Capital aims to raise an additional blind fund of approximately USD 200 million next year where a blind fund is a private equity/debt fund where investors contribute to the pool without knowing what the fund manager will invest in.
Meanwhile, the company added that Kim, who led this round of fundraising, might launch more project funds in the future, to cover private debt and mezzanine financing to provide growth capital for companies in Southeast Asia looking to undergo acquisitions or business expansion.