Alibaba founding member is backing this $37m Singapore fund to invest in startups

Photo credit: tuk69tuk / 123RF Stock Photo.

Venturecraft, a startup accelerator partnering with government agency SPRING Singapore’s Sector-Specific Accelerator program, has launched a new US$37 million fund to bet on growth stage medtech and internet startups in Asia.

The first investment out of the second fund is in Mirxes, a Singapore startup spun out of government research agency A*STAR that’s developing a test to diagnose a range of diseases using just a drop of blood.

The second fund is substantially bigger than Venturecraft’s first, which was US$2.9 million in size. Among its general partners are Sun Tong Yu, a founding member of Alibaba, Lee Wen Yan, a medical doctor, and Zhong Xing Hua, a surgeon.

Tong Yu reportedly bought a penthouse in Singapore for US$37.6 million.

Converted from Singapore dollars. US$1 = S$1.36.