Venture capital (VC) firm Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India has raised $541 million in its fifth fund.
The VC firm’s existing limited partners (LPs), including sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, corporates and family offices across Asia and Europe, along with new LPs such as Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and DEG (German Development Finance Institution) have backed the fund, it said in a statement.
The new Fund V raise for Vertex Ventures comes on the heels of ‘strong cash-on-cash returns’ from its portfolio. This includes successful exits from investments in Grab, FirstCry, XpressBees, and Recko, among others.
The early-stage VC firm said that its fund corpus contains a dedicated co-investment fund of $50 million, specifically for partnering with the primary fund in start-ups led by female founders.
Over 35 per cent of the start-ups in its Fund IV portfolio have at least one female founder, and the company aims to further women’s participation in the industry.
Vertex Ventures, which initially targeted $450 million for the fifth fund, said that it was 80 per cent larger than the $305 million it raised in September 2019 for its Fund IV.
“This fundraise is a testament to the quality of opportunities in the India and Southeast Asian markets. The macro opportunity is palpable, but what excites us more is the continuing maturity of the ecosystem and the quality of founders we are working with in building category-defining companies,” said Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner of Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India.
“Especially in India, we are working with founders tackling very interesting problems across socioeconomic strata and building great products for the world. This, combined with our proven track record of adding value to our portfolio companies, gives us a unique positioning in our markets and we are excited about the path ahead,” he added.
The firm’s portfolio includes Licious, KukuFM, Kissht, Ace, Kapiva, BeepKart, Certa, Signzy and Ayu Health.
Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India is one of the six major funds in Vertex’s global network of venture capital funds, with a primary focus on Singapore, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other emerging hubs across the region.