The venture capital firm co-founded by former Singapore Airlines Ltd. Chairman Koh Boon Hwee closed its first fund at US$130 million ($174.54 million) to back startups in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing technology industry.
The firm, Altara Ventures, drew in investors including Singaporean and South Korean sovereign wealth funds, Razer Inc., and a Europe-based fund of funds, Dave Ng, one of the firm’s five general partners, said in a phone interview. It exceeded its initial target of $100 million, he said.
Koh, 71, also the former chairman of DBS Group Holdings and Singapore Telecommunications, founded Altara in 2020 with four fellow investors to tap Southeast Asia’s tech boom. About 70% of the fund has been earmarked for the region, with the firm focusing on areas including fintech, consumer internet, health care, logistics, enterprise software and education.
“We saw many consumer-focused fintech and logistics startups chart the way during the first decade,” Ng said. “As the region matures, we’re also looking to help build the next wave of tech companies.”
Ng and fellow partner Gavin Teo previously worked at B Capital, Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s venture capital house. The other three partners are Koh, Tan Chow Boon and Seow Kiat Wang, who founded Omni Industries, an electronics components maker acquired by Celestica Inc. in 2001.
Altara’s portfolio companies include Vietnam-based education technology startup Clevai, Malaysia digital insurtech platform PolicyStreet and Philippine digital bank Tonik. Together, the quintet has backed more than 100 companies, including Razer, Ninja Van and Twitch.
Southeast Asia, a region with about 650 million people, is seeing rising interest from investors scouting for companies that can capture the surge of online activity amid the pandemic.
“The venture and startup ecosystem really started gaining traction in Southeast Asia only within the last decade, so we have a long runway ahead of us,” Koh said via email. “Today, the debate has shifted from ‘do we need entrepreneurship and technology transformation?’ to ‘how do we do it?’”
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Photo: The Edge Singapore/Samuel Isaac Chua
