Singapore’s Beenext closes two new funds at $160m

Singapore-based VC firm Beenext today announced that it has closed a total of US$160 million for its two new funds.

Photo credit: Beenext

The US$110 million Beenext Emerging Asia Fund will focus on investing in early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia to accelerate digital technologies across the region. It will target sectors like ecommerce, fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech, AI, and other data-driven tech.

According to a statement, about half of the fund’s amount will be used for Indian startups.

Institutional investors in the US, Japanese corporations, global family offices, and entrepreneurs are among the investors for the new fund, Beenext said. These investors will also serve as partners for its portfolio companies.

Meanwhile, the other US$50 million fund will be used for software-as-a-service businesses in Japan.

With Covid-19 in the foreground, Beenext believes that digitization will help drive the economy post-pandemic. “Covid-19 has impacted every aspect of global business, but we continue to see startup founders pushing the boundaries to not only survive but thrive in this environment,” said Teruhide Sato, founder and managing partner at Beenext.

Since its inception in 2015, the company has invested in more than 180 startups globally, including 72 companies in India such as real estate search portal NoBroker, payments app Citrus Pay, and mobile esports platform Mobile Premier League. It also has 45 investments in Southeast Asia and Japan such as ecommerce platform Zilingo, edtech startup Zenius, and HR SaaS company SmartHR.

Some of its latest investments include an US$8.6 million round for Indonesian peer-to-peer lender Akseleran and a US$1 million seed round for Singapore-based software development company Credify.