Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures has closed its third fund of US$100 million from existing limited partners (LPs) like Temasek, Hanwha, Naver, and EE Capital, as well as new backers like Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, Mitsui Fudosan, IDO Investments, CTBC Group, Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC), and Ion Pacific, it said today.
This new fund will be focused on making Series A investments in companies targeting consumer internet trends in Southeast Asia. This remains in line with Golden Gate Ventures’ initial vision of investing in early-stage consumer, internet and mobile startups in the region since its founding in 2011.
It announced its first fund in 2012, which began as a US$10 million seed investment fund, and closed its second fund of US$60 million in 2016.
Its portfolio from the previous two funds includes C2C marketplace platform Carousell, Indonesian health tech startup Alodokter, real estate marketplace platform 99.co, homeware e-commerce company Hipvan, and others. It has since exited grocery marketplace RedMart (to Lazada), app prototyping startup Woomoo to Priceline, and carpool platform Temanjalan to LINE, among others.
Takeaways:
– Golden Gate Ventures is one of the most prolific venture capital firms in the region investing in early-stage companies in the consumer, internet and mobile space. While there have been an increasing number of funds upwards of US$200 million targeting Southeast Asia recently, there is still a need for early-stage investments to ensure that companies are well-funded in the initial phases to avoid a seed or Series A crunch.
– Carousell is one of Golden Gate Ventures’ most well-known and strongest investments. The C2C marketplace founded in Singapore began as the winner of a startup competition and has now gone on to operate across seven markets in Asia. In May, it announced raising US$85 million in a Series C round.
Editor: Ben Jiang