Artificial Intelligence is fast becoming the most wanted tech tool in the new era. The likes of ChatGPT have become the most widely used software solutions.
Below is a list of the investors that have invested in Southeast Asia’s AI startups in 2023 so far.
Darwin Ventures
Darwin Ventures is a fund of funds that provides individual and institutional investors (primarily educational endowments and foundations) access to investment opportunities generally unavailable to most investors. The firm was founded to provide selective investments in top-tier VC funds. These investments include a diverse group of VC partnerships focusing on US-based early-stage VC funds diversified across industry sectors, including technology, information technology, and healthcare.
Hive Ventures
Hive Ventures is a global VC firm that aims to accelerate technological advancements from Taiwan to build a smarter, hyperconnected world. Led by a team of entrepreneurs with deep expertise in AI and big data, the firm invests in early-stage companies developing the building blocks of AI, SaaS, blockchain and other future technologies.
Harbinger Ventures
Harbinger Ventures is an early-stage growth equity firm focused on identifying and scaling high-growth companies in the consumer sector. It works exclusively with early-stage consumer brands led by exceptional female founders or mixed-gender founder founding teams and incentivises collaboration amongst its portfolio companies by giving each entrepreneur an equity stake in the portfolio.
Darwin, Hive, and Harbinger invested in Profet AI, a Taiwanese artificial intelligence startup in January this year.
RTP Global
RTP is an early-stage VC firm. It has made over 110 investments worldwide, with one in ten becoming multi-billion dollar companies, including Datadog, DeliveryHero and Cred. Its capital comes almost entirely from its founders, who reinvest proceeds from their past startups.
It has a presence in New York, Bangalore, Dubai, London, and Paris.
Lunar Ventures
Lunar Ventures is a deep-tech, seed-stage venture fund with a team of three deep-tech expert partners in Berlin. It invests pre-revenue to help turn your science fiction into reality.
It writes a cheque of €300,000 to €1 million (US$325,000 to US$1.8M) to technical teams with strong R&D backgrounds who build European products that will sell globally.
In February, RTP and Lunar joined the US$3.6 million seed funding round of Instill AI.
Biospring Partners
Biospring Partners was founded in 2020 by Michelle Dipp and Jennifer Lum to invest in companies with the potential to fundamentally shift how technology is utilised across the life sciences sector. Biospring invests in growth-stage B2B companies driving innovation across the life sciences industry and beyond.
Senator Investment Group
Based in New York, Senator Investment is a hedge fund providing services to pooled investment vehicles. It specialises in the fields of financial services and investment management. It was formed in 2008.
B Capital Group
B Capital Group is a global firm specialising in equity investments in venture and growth-stage companies that have achieved traction with customers. Through its extensive global network and exclusive partnership with The Boston Consulting Group, B Capital helps high-growth startups navigate business challenges, raise capital, and attract talented leadership at key points of their journeys to scale.
It has offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore. The focus verticals are AI, biotech, consumer, cybersecurity, e-commerce, finance, healthtech, insurtech, SaaS, transportation, and travel.
The focus stages are seed, pre-Series A, Series A, Series B, Series C, and above. The ticket size is US$10 million to US$60 million.
Glasswing Ventures
Glasswing Ventures is an early-stage VC firm investing in the next generation of AI and frontier technology startups enabling the rise of the intelligent enterprise. It is laser-focused on funding exceptional entrepreneurs leading the AI revolution, capitalising on the intellectual might and talent from the premier academic institutions on the East Coast, and fostering growth for our ecosystem.
In March, Biospring, Senator Investment, B Capital, and Glasswing invested in Labviva, a Singapore- and US-based AI-driven life sciences digital marketplace.
FinSight Ventures
A global fintech and SaaS investor. Most of its investments are from the US, India and Europe. It invests in pre-seed and seed stages and writes US$50000 to US$100,000.
For Series A and Series B firms, it usually invests anywhere between US$500,000 to US$5 million. In Series С+, it can invest between US$10 million and US$20 million.
Rebel Fund
Rebel aims to invest in the best 0.1 per cent of the 40,000-plus tech startups that apply each year to Y Combinator. The fund’s due diligence and investing decisions are made by a team of accomplished Y Combinator alumni who have founded companies valued at over US$85 billion, invested in 200+ startups, and generated top-decile portfolio returns.
Rebel utilises a proprietary machine-learning algorithm called Rebel Theorem to help validate and screen potential investments.
Nurture Ventures
Nurture Venture provides venture assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs. The firm focuses on various areas, including healthtech, cyber security, applied artificial intelligence, and customer experience.
Leonis Investissement
Leonis Investissement is a private club that allows individuals and business angels to invest from €1,500 in hyper-growth startups in Silicon Valley.
FinSight, Rebel, Nurture, and Leonis were part of the US$8.5 million Series A funding round of Betterhalf, an AI-powered matchmaking platform targetting urban Indians.
Wavemaker Partners
Wavemaker takes a portfolio-building approach to early-stage (seed to Series A) investing. It usually starts with a US$100,000 to US$200,000 cheque and follows on until US$1 million. It has 15 member funds across four continents.
Wavemaker Group is a multi-faceted cross-border venture capital firm founded in 2003. The firm is dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and has raised over US$580M across multiple funds. In Southeast Asia, Wavemaker focuses on enterprise and deep technology companies.
Its Singapore-based investments include Luxola (acquired by LVMH), ArtofClick (acquired by Xurpas), and Pie (acquired by Google).
SEEDS Capital
As the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, SEEDS Capital catalyses smart monies into Singapore-based early-stage technology startups. It co-invests with institutional investors in innovative startups with strong intellectual content and global market potential. It focuses on nascent and strategic industries such as advanced manufacturing and engineering, health & biomedical sciences, and urban solutions & sustainability.
It also looks at other emerging technologies such as agri-tech, AI, blockchain, Quantum Computing, and space technologies. Post-investment, it leverages Enterprise Singapore’s networks across industries and global overseas centres to support the growth of our portfolio companies.
Today, it has over 100 startups in its portfolio and works with more than 40 co-investment partners.
Wavemaker and SEEDS Capital participated in the US$1.8 million seed funding round of Groundup.ai, a Singaporean startup helping industrial companies prevent unplanned downtime of industrial assets and improve workplace safety.
Horizons Ventures
Horizons Ventures was co-founded by Solina Chau and Debbie Chang in 2005. It is known for backing era-defining companies making a lasting and positive impact worldwide. Its notable early-stage investments are Zoom, Impossible Foods, Perfect Day, Spotify, Siri, and DeepMind.
LifeX Ventures
LifeX is a capital growth company that de-risks early-stage life sciences companies in terms of time, resources, and investment. It focuses on the strategic pillars of commercialisation, capital, infrastructure, and resources to create alignment and achieve the highest probability of success for every company in our portfolio.
Blackbird Ventures
Blackbird is based in Australia and New Zealand. It invests in every type of technology, from software to space. It backs the best startup companies from idea to beyond IPO. Its portfolio is worth over US$7 billion and includes some of the most successful Aussie and Kiwi startups, including Canva, Zoox, SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, and Halter.
Radar Ventures
Radar Ventures is a private fund based in Australia and New Zealand, investing globally in companies developing technology solutions to problems affecting humans on a global scale. Investment sizes vary, with a preference to invest early and follow the company’s growth.
In April, Horizons, LifeX, Blackbird, and Radar joined the US$10 million financing round of Singapore- and Australia-based Cortical Labs.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)
QIA was established in 2005 to protect and grow Qatar’s financial assets and to help diversify the economy. QIA is a global investment organisation with investments spanning all major global markets, asset classes, sectors and geographies.
ICONIQ Capital
ICONIQ Capital is a privately-held investment firm. ICONIQ provides financial advisory and family office services and manages direct investments focusing on technology growth equity, venture capital, middle market buyout, and real estate.
Jungle Ventures
Jungle Ventures is a Singapore-based VC firm that invests in and helps build tech category leaders from Asia. It invests in early and growth-stage companies.
The focus verticals are consumer, enterprise solution, finance, and SaaS.
It invests across Singapore, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam across pre-Series A/bridge, Series A, Series B, Series C, and above.
The investment range is US$1M to US$15M.
Its portfolio includes Livspace, Kredivo, Reddoorz, Sociolla, and Waresix.
Insight Partners
Founded in 1995, Insight Venture Partners specialises in growth-stage software and internet investing globally. Insight’s team of growth experts comprises technology investors and operating executives with significant experience scaling technology companies. Since its inception, Insight has raised over US$7.6 billion to invest in market-leading companies through minority and majority deals.
QIA, ICONIQ, Jungle, and Insight were part of the US$250 million Series D funding round of Builder.ai, an AI-powered composable software platform.
Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus is a global growth investor. The firm has more than $80 billion in assets under management. Its active portfolio of more than 250 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography.
Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 21 private equity and two real estate funds, which have invested over US$109 billion in over 1,000 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.
Northstar Group
Northstar Group is a Singapore-headquartered private equity and venture capital firm managing over US$2.6 billion in committed equity capital. It invests in fast-growing in Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Indonesia.
Since its founding in 2003, the group has invested in more than 50 companies across the financial services, consumer/retail, manufacturing, technology, telecom, and agribusiness sectors. In aggregate, it has invested over US$4 billion with its co-investors in Southeast Asia.
In May, Singapore-based AI company Advance Intelligence Group raised US$80 million from an investor consortium led by existing investors Warburg Pincus and Northstar Group.
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Copyright: peshkova
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