With Burpple as Last Investment, Neoteny Labs Singapore is now Silicon Straits

Three years and 24 investments later (with foodie app Burpple being the most recent), Neoteny Labs’ $5 million fund will stop making new investments and focus on helping its portfolio companies grow. We understand that the fund isn’t out of cash and remains open to investing in portfolio companies that require follow-up funding. Ex-principal of Neoteny, James Chan also blogged that Neoteny Labs (Pte Ltd) has been rebranded and is now known as Silicon Straits. He described Silicon Straits as follows:

Silicon Straits is a tech venture foundry focused on Southeast Asia. We hope to contribute to the growing tech narrative in the region in a big way. We’d love to hear from entrepreneurs, developers, investors, media, and neotenous individuals.

Silicon Straits, like Neoteny, continues to be an approved TIS incubator, and the Singapore government will co-fund up to 85 percent of the total investment for each company (or a maximum of S$500,000 per investment). James told me:

The “Neoteny” brand has become synonymous with Joi (Ito) over the years, and with [him] focused on reinventing the Media Lab [1], and in the interest of being able to invest in and work with new startups, I’ve decided to forge ahead with the new partners via Silicon Straits, even as I continue to work with Joi on Neoteny Labs’ portfolio.

So entrepreneurs, please continue to stalk James if you’re seeking funding.