The unique blockchain fund with 40+ partners, including PropertyGuru and Zopim founders

“We never give up on any company. We’re here with them until the day they run dry,” declares Kelly Choo, a founding partner and board member of True Global Ventures (TGV), an equity venture firm focused on fintech.

That’s a bold claim, considering that nine out of every 10 startups will fail, and that VCs tend to focus most of their time on the biggest winners in their portfolio.

But there’s a method to this madness. Rather than spreading the risk around a huge portfolio of sufficiently diverse businesses, TGV chooses to invest in fewer than 20 companies for each fund it manages, and only with serial entrepreneurs that have reinvested the profits from their previous exit into their new venture.

Jani Rautiainen, co-founder of PropertyGuru, and Lim Qing Ru, one of the co-founders of Zopim / Image credit: Timmy Loen, based on photos from Rautianen and Qing Ru

TGV4+, the firm’s latest blockchain-focused fund that was established in 2018, has raised more than two-thirds of its US$100 million goal, having tripled the size of the fund in the last two months. The largest investors in TGV4+ are a mix of individual and institutional investors as well as limited partners, which contribute capital but have no operational duties.

The firm’s sizable stable of over 40 partners include prominent entrepreneurs in the Singapore startup scene such as Jani Rautiainen, co-founder of real estate platform PropertyGuru, and Lim Qing Ru, one of the co-founders of customer support platform Zopim, which was sold to Zendesk for US$30 million in 2014.

We’re not doing spray and pray.

Choo is a serial entrepreneur himself, having established or co-founded four companies by the time he joined TGV. One of them, media intelligence company Brandtology, was snapped up in 2011 by a bigger player, Media Monitor.

“We take care of fewer companies, but we’re more incentivized to see them succeed. We’re not doing ‘spray and pray.’ Even for companies that are not doing well, we’ll endeavor to find a new home for them through a good exit. Every company that doesn’t die creates an improvement in the fund returns,” says Choo.

TGV’s slate of partners may seem extensive, but they have different commitment levels. The firm only accepts serial entrepreneurs as “founding partners.” They will need to have done an exit themselves and made at least two angel investments. Founding partners typically sit on the board of the investee committee and collaborate with the company at a working level, leading deals, connecting clients and partners, and ultimately helping to exit the business for the fund.

TGV also leans on its network of “affiliate founding partners,” who are typically high-achieving individuals in their own fields and have expertise in relevant verticals. While their role is more passive, they seek opportunities and open doors for the firm’s portfolio companies.

Compared to affiliate founding partners, founding partners typically put in a more significant amount of money into the fund. And when they lead on deals, they are also compensated with a larger share of the profits upon exit.

“None of us are salaried”

TGV was founded in 2010 by Swedish entrepreneur Dusan Stojanovic and quickly rose to prominence in Europe as a firm run by entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors. In 2012, he had achieved the rare feat of leading three exits in one week and was subsequently hailed as “Business Angel of the Year” in 2013 by the Belgium-based European Business Angel Network.

By 2015, Stojanovic had set up two funds: TGV1 and TGV2. He had also moved to Singapore with his family to start TGV3, which would focus on business-to-business fintech.

Minting a unicorn