This new Singapore fund wants to hatch fintech and B2B startups

A new venture capital fund called Hatcher has launched, and it is targeting to raise US$100 million. It’s well on its way there. The Singapore and Dubai-based “venture builder platform” focuses on startups in the fintech and B2B space.

Hatcher CEO John Sharp tells Tech in Asia that it will invest in startups that are “post-revenue” or have “patents that can be turned into revenue at a later stage.”

He adds: “We are looking for companies that can show revenue trend lines or other forms of product validation, and we typically look for a massive Total Addressable Market.”

Hatcher is pretty specific about what it wants. It plans to put in an average of US$7.5 million per project, though it’s open to invest more or less depending on the circumstances. On its B2B orientation, Sharp tells Tech in Asia that while he’d love to play in the B2C space, he wants to focus on what the firm’s good at.

Sharp adds that Hatcher prefers a hands-on approach to portfolio management. “We literally speak with our CEOs at least once a week, and usually once a day – and sometimes, during a critical hire or sales deal, once an hour!”

They also prefer older and more experienced CEOs in their startups, as research shows the closer they are to 50, the more likely they’ll succeed. Nonetheless, one of their portfolio companies is SocialCops, a big data startup run by 23-year-olds. “They are every bit as mature as some of our older executives,” says Sharp.

Not your granddad’s venture capital firm

Hatcher is also unique in that it runs a little like an agency. It houses a project management executive, a corporate finance team, two designers, intellectual property lawyers, and mentors.

Some of its portfolio companies include invoice financing firm ApexPeak, payment processor Telr, and data backup company DropMySite.

Probably one of the most interesting elements of Hatcher though is that it runs an investment management platform. In development for two years, the cloud app is sort of like a private Kickstarter that includes accounting, shareholder management, and corporate governance features. It also has an investor database and a CRM module.

Hatcher’s system gathers product and corporate presentations, as well as business model, financials, and sales information. Company stakeholders can view the data live via mobile and desktop. All investor groups in its affiliate network, which will be activated this year, can use the platform to share data.