Golden Gate Ventures raises $60m for second fund

Golden Gate Ventures’ founding partners (from L to R): Jeffrey Paine, Paul Bragiel, and Vinnie Lauria.

Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures announced today it has completed fundraising for its second seed stage fund. It’s now worth US$60 million, up from the original US$50 million announced in July.

“The fund was oversubscribed by US$10 million,” Golden Gate said in the statement released today.

The fund focuses on early-stage investments in the region, targeting seed and series A rounds between US$1 million and US$5 million or higher. It typically looks at consumer-facing businesses like ecommerce, software-as-a-service, mobile apps, and smart home systems or hardware.

Additional cash from Korea, Germany, Thailand

The first US$35 million came from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and the Government of Singapore’s investment company Temasek – among other investors. Additional cash is from Korean insurance firm Hanwha Life, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, and German media conglomerate Hubert Burda Media.

It now has over 30 portfolio companies.

Hubert Burda Media already invests in several startups in its own capacity, including some in Southeast Asia, like Thailand’s Medical Departures and Vietnamese search engine Coc Coc.

Hubert Burda’s participation in Golden Gate’s new fund “shows its increasing commitment to becoming a player in Southeast Asia,” said the Singaporean VC firm.

“Golden Gate Ventures’ view is that startup activity in the ecosystem is at a critical inflexion point,” one of the firm’s founding partners, Vinnie Lauria, said in a statement. “Despite the perceived difficulties in China affecting investor sentiment in the country, investment continues to flow into Southeast Asia.”

Some of the VCs more recent investments were in Thai payments company Omise, mobile app market Aptoide, and Indonesian financial services provider Ruma.

Vinnie wouldn’t disclose how much of the new fund has already been allocated to startups.

Including the investments made through its first US$10 million fund, which started in 2012, Golden Gate now counts over 30 companies in its portfolio.