InnoVen Capital, Asia’s largest debt provider to high growth, venture-backed technology companies, announced on Tuesday that they have launched a new fund focused on the Southeast Asia market.
Known as the InnoVen SEA Fund, it follows the recent launch of InnoVen Capital India Fund last month.
InnoVen SEA Fund has completed its first close of $50 million with InnoVen Capital and will be seeking additional investors to participate in the fund, InnoVen Capital said in a statement.
“Since our inception in 2015, InnoVen has seen steady growth of our portfolio across India, China, and Southeast Asia. We have made over $900 million in loan disbursements across Asia in the past six years, and have more than 20 portfolio companies that have gone on to achieve unicorn status. Building on the track record of our team, the launch of the InnoVen SEA Fund will allow investors to participate in our growing franchise in Southeast Asia,” InnoVen Executive Director Ong Beng Teck said.
The Fund will be led by Partners Paul Ong and Ben Cheah, who have led transactions to more than 50 portfolio companies which include names like Carsome, Ruangguru, Tiki, Akulaku, and eFishery, with cumulative loan disbursements of more than $180 million.
“Venture debt in Southeast Asia has come a long way from being relatively unknown 5 years ago to being an integral part of the entrepreneur’s fundraising toolkit. As the Southeast Asian ecosystem continues to mature, we expect the demand for venture debt to increase as more companies take advantage of less-dilutive capital to grow even faster. We are excited to ride this wave of growth along with our ecosystem partners and investors,” InnoVen SEA Fund Partner Ben Cheah said.
Venture debt is a growing asset class in Asia that provides investors with a regular set of cashflows while at the same time delivers equity upside from warrants of the underlying portfolio companies.
InnoVen SEA Fund aims to offer investors attractive risk-adjusted returns, leveraging on the massive growth of the digital economy in the region.
Singapore-headquartered InnoVen Capital is a venture lending platform providing debt capital to high-growth, venture-backed technology companies. InnoVen Capital is a joint venture between Seviora, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, and United Overseas Bank. With offices in India, China, and Singapore, InnoVen Capital actively supports talented founders in Asia in growing their businesses.
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