Tanglin Venture co-founder exits, to shift investment strategy

Singapore-based fund management firm Tanglin Venture Partners announced that its co-founder Edwina Yeo has exited the company and sold her stake to one of its anchor investors.

Tanglin Venture Partners co-founders Edwina Yeo (left) and Ravi Venkatesh / Photo credit: Tanglin Venture

Yeo will continue to be a senior advisor to Tanglin until the end of the year. She also intends to remain in the tech industry while pursuing a new investment strategy, according to a statement.

With the increasing tension between the US and China and the trend towards decoupling in the high-tech sector, Southeast Asia will become more attractive to large tech firms globally, Yeo said.

“This means new software, hardware, and platforms will be launched, invested in, and scaled at an accelerated path compared to recent years,” she tells Tech in Asia.

Yeo also noted that the region, especially Singapore, has started receiving more capital and talent from all around the globe. Chinese tech titans such as ByteDance and Tencent have all expanded their presence in Southeast Asia and set up regional headquarters in the city-state.

In addition, Yeo said she expects Covid-19 to change the way we live and do business, affecting work strategies, financial management and national security, among others. This shift will lead to more opportunities for the tech industry in the long run, she added.

Launched late 2018, early stage-focused Tanglin targets for high-growth startups in Southeast Asia and India. Yeo founded the company with Ravi Venkatesh, who worked with her at Tiger Global.

Tanglin raised US$51 million for its first fund and has already made a couple of investments, including in Indian supply chain platform Ninjacart and Indonesian bookkeeping app BukuWarung.