Singaporean startup investor to join forces with Swiss company builder

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Fatfish Internet Group, a startup investment company headquartered in Singapore and Australia, has agreed to sell some of its assets to Zurich-based company builder Mountain Partners as part of a strategic partnership focusing on Southeast Asia.

The assets worth US$9.2 million will be housed in a special purpose vehicle, which will be 100 percent owned by Mountain. Fatfish will get a combination of Mountain shares and cash in the sale.

A joint venture to be branded as Mountain Asia will then be formed and majority-owned by Mountain, but managed by Fatfish executives. The JV will oversee Mountain’s investments in the region.

The parties entered into a term sheet, but nothing is binding yet. The whole deal is subject to a due diligence process and expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Fatfish is some sort of an Asian Rocket Internet wannabe. It acts as a strategic investor in companies by providing them with funding and other resources to grow their businesses. It has backed ventures like fashion ecommerce site Dressabelle and car insurance comparison service RajaPremi.

The company didn’t disclose which assets it’s selling to Mountain Partners, but it says it will continue to hold certain investments on its own, including its interest in mobile entertainment and gaming studio iCandy Interactive.

Mountain Partners is a global company builder that has been involved in starting and funding over 150 tech businesses. Among its notable investments were BuyVIP (acquired by Amazon), Lieferando (acquired by Takeaway.com), and Secusmart (acquired by Blackberry).