It is heartening to see venture capital investors — local and foreign — coming forward to invest in Southeast Asian startups amidst a challenging investment climate. Last week, some of e27’s verified investors (e27 Connect) were involved in many investment deals in the region.
Below is the brief profile of each of them.
Better Bite Ventures
Founded by Michal Klar and Simon Newstead, Singapore-based Better Bite invests in alternative protein startups in Asia Pacific across founding, pre-seed, and seed stages. It invests in startups using plant-based and cellular agriculture technologies to create climate-friendly meat, dairy, egg and seafood alternatives that are better for people, animals and planet.
It provides up to US$50K per startup. Last week, it invested in four alt-protein startups – Allium Bio, Cultivaer, EatKinda, and Klevermeat.
Touchstone Partners
Touchstone Partners is a Vietnam-focused VC firm. Its current investment areas include fintech, real estate, health technology, and edutech and technology initiatives that improve the efficiency of the value chains of important industries such as production and agriculture.
Last week, it joined the US$3 million funding round of Selex Motors, a Vietnamese maker of electric two-wheelers and battery packs, along with ADB Ventures and two foreign investment funds.
Investible
With offices in Sydney and Singapore, Investible is an Asia-Pacific-based early-stage VC firm that provides high-potential founders with financial, human and intellectual capital.
Also Read: Meet the e27 Connect investors that invested in SEA in April first half
The VC firm invests between US$200,000 and US$1 million in seed, pre-Series A and Series A startups.
On April 21, Investible led the US$1.65 million round of Singapore-based programmable synthetic data company Betterdata.
Xcel Next Ventures
Launched in Nov 2021, Xcel Next is an early-stage VC firm with a presence in Taipei, Singapore and Silicon Valley. With its extensive network and global resources, it adopts a high-touch approach to help early-stage founders accelerate their venture-building process.
Xcel mainly invests in seed to Series A startups through its fund X-TECH, cheque size starts from US$100,000 up to US$1 million per investment.
Its areas of interest include AI, 5G applications, edge computing, mobility, healthtech, smart manufacturing, fintech, blockchain/Web3, VR/AR/XR, metaverse, and next-generation technologies.
It invested in Betterdata along with Investible.
iGlobe Partners
Established in December 1999, iGlobe Partners is a cross-border VC firm that invests globally in early growth companies (pre-Series A to Series D) focusing on smart Cities, fintech, and synthetic biology. It identifies companies in early growth stages with emerging technologies and innovations that will become game-changers.
It sources startups from Silicon Valley and brings them through Singapore as a gateway to Asia.
On April 20, it participated in Accredify’s US$7 million Series A round.
Qualgro
Qualgro (quality & growth) is a VC firm based in Singapore, investing in tech companies in B2B, data/AI and software across Southeast Asia, primarily at Series A & B.
Its cheque size ranges from US$10,000 to US$10 million.
It co-invested along with iGlobe in Accredify’s US$7 million Series A round.
Earth Venture Capital
Earth VC is a global VC firm investing in climate-tech solutions, with a focus on the Southeast Asia region. The firm invests in seed to Series A startups in AI, Machine Learning, robotics, new materials, new energy, and the IoT that serve the goals of switching to renewable energy, abandoning fossil fuel, and increasing the level of carbon storage.
It writes a cheque size of US$500,000 to US$1 million in pre-seed, seed, pre-Series A, and Series A startups.
A few days ago, it invested in Israeli startup ITC.
Forge Ventures
Forge Ventures was established in 2021 by Tiang Lim Foo and Kaspar Hidayat in partnership with Alto Partners, an Asia-focused multi-family office. A sector-agnostic fund, it intends to back founders developing the next generation of category-defining firms at the seed stage. It is also paying close attention to fintech startups in the region.
It has an average cheque size of US$750,000.
The firm recently led Mito Health’s US$1.3 million funding.
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