Singapore-based venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners has recently announced the close of three Southeast Asia funds with total commitments of $516 million.
The venture capital firm is an existing investor in two startups that are based in the Philippines and a fintech company that targets the local market. Thus, it is very likely that Insignia Ventures Partners, founded in 2017 by Yinglan Tan, will also be looking at startups in the country for the latest funds.
In a statement, Insignia said it secured $516 million across three Southeast Asian funds — $388 million for its third early-stage fund (IVPF III), $28 million for an entrepreneur’s pool, which invests alongside the main fund, and $100 million for its annex fund.
These funds will focus on early-stage technology investments in Southeast Asia and come as Insignia celebrates five years of building great companies, the VC firm said.
Investors in the new fund span premier institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments, and renowned family offices from Asia, Europe, and North America.
“We could have raised a much higher amount but we have learned that smaller, tighter funds do better,” founding managing partner Yinglan Tan said.
Tan said limited partners were initially skeptical of whether Southeast Asia was sufficiently large and addressable when they were raising their first $120 million fund.
Since its inception, Insignia has deployed in over 50 companies from its $120 million Fund I and $200 million Fund II. Some of its notable portfolio companies include Singapore-based used car marketplace Carro, Indonesian digital investment platform and unicorn Ajaib, Japan-listed business intelligence firm Appier, Indonesian tech giant GoTo, and others.
In the Philippines, Insignia is an investor in Philippine digital bank Tonik, having participated in Tonik Financial’s $131 million Series B funding in February. The round was anchored by Mizuho Bank.
It also backed the $26-million funding in First Circle, a local fintech company building a platform with embedded credit and payments for small businesses, in 2018, joining lead investor Venturra Capital and other backers, such as Silverhorn Investment Advisors and Tryb Group.
Brankas, an Open Finance technology company in Southeast Asia, with operations in the Philippines, also raised $20 million in its Series B funding in January, anchored by Insignia Ventures Partners, with participation from returning investors Beenext and Integra Partners.
For its latest funds, Insignia aims to be more aggressive on “next-decade sunrise sectors” in the region. These include web3, climate tech, healthcare, and agriculture.
“There is understated but critical alignment between the solutions coming out of these areas and long-standing problems in the region from end-to-end food sustainability to trust with institutions,” Yinglan said about investing in these sunrise sectors.