Golden Gate Ventures commits $18m to Malaysia, opens KL office

Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures (GGV) is expanding its regional footprint with the opening of its new office in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is the venture capital firm’s third location in Southeast Asia.

The firm said the move will solidify its “on-the-ground presence” in Malaysia, where it already has several tech companies in its portfolio. These include airline ecommerce and customer relations platform GoQuo and home repair and maintenance marketplace ServisHero.

GGV also said it’s planning to invest US$18 million from its US$100 million Fund III in Malaysia-based startups. It is looking at consumer-focused and internet-related startups, particularly companies in insurance, education, medical tech, ecommerce, and business-to-business software.

“Malaysia’s current generation of startups is still in its infancy,” GGV managing partner Vinnie Lauria told Tech in Asia. “[Startups] in the region are in their early stages of digitalization, there’s a lot of opportunities to help grow them to match evolving business needs.”

Lauria also said in a press statement that Malaysia’s new government has resulted in optimism and the sentiment has extended to the business sphere.

“We think there were more risks with the previous administration. Although time will tell how things will change with the new government in place, we’ve been buoyant so far as there’s a lot more excitement in the air now,” he explained.

On the back of its Malaysian expansion, GGV also opened a US$10 million special fund for investing in blockchain technologies and digital currency startups.