GoTo-backed investment firm Go-Ventures has rebranded as Argor Capital Management Pte. Ltd. (Argor) and closed its second flagship venture fund at $240 million.
Argor said in a statement on Tuesday that it has raised the funding in committed capital for its second venture fund and separately managed vehicles.
With the completion of its recent fundraise, the firm plans to deepen its impact on Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem by investing in both early and mid-stage companies that address large and attractive market opportunities while driving significant societal impact.
According to the statement, Argor saw its investor base expand meaningfully in this fundraise.
Investors in Argor’s second venture fund include leading sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, corporates and family offices from Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe and the United States.
With the success of its first venture fund, the firm said a decision was made to rebrand as “Argor” to reinforce the investment firm’s independence and expanded capabilities to drive growth for its portfolio companies.
The firm said it continues to maintain a close relationship with GoTo and its other limited partners.
“Argor is a uniquely coined name that comes from a combination of the words ‘ardor’, ‘rigor’ and ‘Go’,
“It captures the passion and spirit of partnership that our team employs as we invest in and help our portfolio companies across Southeast Asia change millions of lives for the better,” said Aditya Kamath, a Partner at Argor.
“While we are rebranding at a time of expansion, the word ‘Go’ embedded in our name is an important reminder for us of the strong support we have received from GoTo and our other investors since we started this journey back in 2018,” he added.
Although GoTo remains an investor in Argor’s funds, Argor’s strategy and investment decisions continue to be independent of GoTo and other limited partners.
“We are grateful to our investors for supporting us in this next step of our journey,
“Despite the challenging macro environment globally, we remain excited about the potential of Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem, which is underpinned by secular consumption and technology adoption across both consumers and businesses,” said Kamath, adding that the firm remains focused on identifying and backing category winners across Southeast Asia.
It is noted that over the past two years, Argor has rapidly expanded its investment and portfolio support capabilities with the addition of Siddharth Pisharody and Adrian Foo as partners, as well as a three-fold increase in team size.
New team additions include leading industry executives in areas such as technology, product, data science, talent and marketing.
“The common thread running through all of our investments is that they are helmed by founders looking to solve big problems in big markets and with whom we generally have built a relationship of trust and partnership for several years prior to our investment,
“We remain sector agnostic, focusing on a limited number of high-conviction investments that provide returns for our investors while transforming people’s lives in Southeast Asia,” Kamath added.
According to the statement, Argor has already completed several investments out of its second venture fund, having invested in companies that span sectors such as verticalized business to business (B2B) marketplaces, tech-enabled consumer businesses, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) digitization platforms, environment tech and embedded finance.
Argor was established in 2018 with the backing of GoTo as an independent but ecosystem-linked investment firm.
It manages funds and investment vehicles that primarily invest in Southeast Asia’s technology or technology-enabled companies, ranging from early-stage to mid-stage investment rounds.
Argor closed its first flagship venture fund in 2020 with a total commitment of $175 million.
The first venture fund has invested in 19 companies in Southeast Asia, which have successfully raised follow-on funding from third-party investors subsequent to Argor’s initial investments, totalling $1.4 billion to date.