Singapore’s Temasek widens European reach with Paris office launch

Photo credit: Temasek

Singapore’s Temasek has officially opened an office in Paris, aiming to widen its opportunities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

The Paris office strengthens the state-owned investment firm ‘s current European footprint, joining its London and Brussels branches. This is Temasek’s 13th site across nine countries.

A company spokesperson told The Straits Times that Temasek plans to invest US$14 billion to US$18 billion in the EMEA region over the next five years.

Temasek’s investments in the EMEA region have increased 5x since 2011, amounting to US$34.7 billion – or about 12% of its portfolio – as of March last year. Its key investments in Europe include German biotech company BioNTech and Dutch payments major Adyen.

Meanwhile, Temasek is one of the most active investors in Asia. It has invested in companies like Alibaba, Grab, and GoTo, and it has roughly 20 investment firms and a venture-building arm under its umbrella.

The company also started launching its own startups in 2020, having rolled out 15 of them as of this year.

Last month, it was reported that Temasek is considering placing its chip on OpenAI. If a deal goes through, Temasek would be the first state-backed investor of the ChatGPT developer.

The move would complement Singapore’s lofty AI ambitions. The city-state is betting big on the tech, having committed US$742 million in investments to its AI industry over the next five years.

See also: Mapping Temasek’s role in the startup space (updated)