Singapore’s Insignia Closes $200 Million Southeast Asia Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Insignia Ventures Partners, a Singapore-based firm founded by a former venture partner of Sequoia Capital, has closed its second Southeast Asian fund at $200 million.

The new fund underscores growing interest in Southeast Asia’s startup scene. A number of VC firms, including Temasek Holdings Pte.’s Vertex Ventures and Vulcan Capital, the investment house of late Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, have launched funds focused on the region this year.

“We are doubling down on early-stage technology in Southeast Asia,” Insignia Founding Managing Partner Yinglan Tan said in an interview. “There is more smart capital and top talent flowing into the region that spur the formation of great companies.”

Tan said Insignia can distinguish itself through a hands-on approach with portfolio companies. The firm supports founders in several ways, including providing Insignia’s in-house technology for hiring and fundraising, he said.

Insignia’s portfolio companies include car marketplace Carro, bill payments startup Payfazz, logistics service provider Janio, Indonesian fund-transfer platform Flip and Logivan, a Vietnamese logistics startup.

Tan, Sequoia Capital’s first employee in Southeast Asia, launched Insignia Ventures’ first, $120 million fund in late 2017.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy

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