Singapore VC firm raises $160 million; 50% to be invested in Indian start-ups

Singapore-based venture capital firm Beenext has raised $160 million and has closed two new funds. The firm that has more than 180 investments in start-ups across the globe has invested in 72 start-ups, which include NoBroker, Droom, CitrusPay, BharatPe, Bank Open, YAP,  Mobile Premier League, Trell, WorkIndia, Healthians, mfine, Servify, Fleetx, Cropin and  MilkBasket, among others. The firm intends to invest nearly half of the funds exclusively in Indian start-ups.

One of the two new funds, 'BEENEXT Emerging Asia Fund' with a corpus of  $110 million will  focus on investing in early-stage start-ups and founders in India as well as in South East Asia.  The focus will be on early-stage Indian start-ups in the e-commerce, fintech, health-tech, agri-tech, edu-tech and AI/data driven technology domains.  Teruhide Sato, Founder & Managing Partner, BEENEXT said that in COVID-19 times there is a greater need to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure we bounce back as a strong community of founders. "BEENEXT has always believed in building businesses together with founders and fellow local co-investors to have a lasting impact. We look forward to co-creating and growing together with more start-ups in India," he said.  The second fund of $50 million will, however, be exclusively for SaaS companies in Japan to help accelerate digital transformation in each industry.

The investors in the new fund include major institutional investors in the US along with Japanese corporations, global family offices, and entrepreneurs backing the next generation founders. Alongside investing, the fund's investors will also play a key role as a partner with the start-ups to create strong businesses. "We have not paused our engagement with potential founders for even a minute and are continuing to increase our momentum to find talented leaders in India and elsewhere, building the next great products and solutions," said Sato.

BEENEXT is a Venture Capital fund managed by serial entrepreneurs, with an investment focus on early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building the new digital platforms driven by the data. Apart from Indian start-ups, the fund has also invested in Southeast Asia and Japan. These include Zilingo, Vietnam's largest online marketplace Sendo, and HR SaaS firm SmartHR in Japan.

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