Airbus Ventures, a venture capital company sponsored by the global aircraft manufacturer, recently made its debut in Singapore with an investment in last-mile internet connectivity startup Transcelestial last month.
The global VC firm, with its Asia Pacific operations being managed by Partner Lewis Pinault, who is based in Tokyo, now looks to make more investments in the region.
“I’m a firm believer that Asia Pacific is rich in innovation,” Pinault told e27 in an interview, shortly after the Transcelestial funding. “There’s a tremendous amount of innovation happening in Asia Pacific, some of which may not be too obvious. Many investible companies are emerging in the region.”
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According to Pinault, it was tough for the VC firm to choose between Japan and Singapore to base its Asia Pacific operations. Both countries have smaller but respectable VC markets and activities and have strong engines of underlying innovation that make them attractive.
“Both draw international pools of talent. We like the transparency of both the markets. There’s even a natural affinity between the two countries: we see many Japanese investors in Singapore and many Singaporean talents in Japan. So, we are so excited to be investing and becoming more active in Singapore,” he added.
While it has already a handful of investments in Japan (Carbon Fiber Recycling Co., InfoStellar, Telexistence), Singapore had always been in the VC firm’s radar.
Lewis Pinault
“What is so impressive about Singapore is that while it attracts talent from around the world, there is a common language infrastructure for English. Whatever the ethnicity or origins, the people of Singapore are completely competent in the language and are often very competently multilingual, which is another asset,” he noted.
“In terms of having a view of the world, recognising that there are multiple cultures, sources of innovation, ways of adding positive diversity and complex systems is what innovation is all about. I think that’s a natural advantage for Singapore,” said Pinault.
He also thinks the city-state has a great education and university infrastructure and governmental support programme. Although it is small as an international hub, it is vibrant.
“And for me, it’s a huge privilege to be looking at this kind of access, this dynamic between Japan and Singapore because they each bring different things to the tables,” he said.
He also added that the VC firm will soon announce its second investment in Singapore in new and deep space capabilities.
Founded in 2016, the VC firm (it doesn’t call itself a corporate venture capital) operates with substantive independence and autonomy. According to Crunchbase, Airbus Ventures has so far raised a single fund, Airbus Group Venture Fund, worth US$150 million, in January 2016.
According to market sources, Airbus Ventures is in the midst of raising a new and larger fund.
It primarily invests in “extraordinary startups” whose important future impacts are set to redefine the aerospace industry. So far, it has made 46 deals across the globe.
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“In the Asia Pacific, we are seeing advances in real frontier technologies like new and deep space capabilities and teleoperator robotics, and connectivity systems, which we think are special and important,” he said.
“Broadly speaking, we are focused on a thesis on autonomy and autonomous systems connectivity, as well as electrification, cybersecurity, advanced computing, robotics, AI, new space and deep space technologies. Also new material tools and design for manufacturing, particularly in Southeast Asia,” Pinault stated.
Airbus Ventures invests from its global fund and doesn’t run a separate fund for the Asia region. It invests in early-stage and growth-stage companies.
“We don’t invest from the balance sheet of Airbus. We have a separate fund. We function as a General Partner to our LP. We are a global fund and we don’t have a separate fund for Southeast Asia,” he said. “We have an expectation that a significant proportion of the fund will be spent and investing in the Asia Pacific region.”
According to Pinault, the COVID-19 has been a terrible crisis for the whole world to face. “Certainly, there will be some necessary innovations and some spectacular innovation. And I hope that we learn to adapt to different collaboratives system approaches.”
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