Singapore VC Openspace closes US$135 fund that includes investment from Temasek
Previously known as NSI Ventures, Openspace is most famous for being the first institutional investor to back Go-Jek
Openspace Ventures, the VC previously known as NSI Ventures, announced today it has closed its Fund 2 at US$135 million. This brings the total amount of capital invested by Limited Partners (LPs) to US$225 million.
The disclosed LPs were Temasek and StepStone, a private markets investment firm.
Other LPs include representation from family offices, insurance companies, pension funds and university endowments. Geographically they were from Australia, China, Europe, Japan, South Korea and the US.
The US$135 million number represents a US$10 million increase from the US$125 million target reported by Bloomberg in December, 2017.
Today’s announcement represents the hard close of the fund.
Openspace is the rebrand of NSI Ventures after the firm decided to go independent after being affiliated with NorthStar Group, a private equity firm.
The firm focusses on Series A and Series B investments in Southeast Asia.
The company plans to “back the next wave of standout technology companies in Southeast Asia” and invest deeper in regional operational capabilities.
The major win for Openspace is that it was the first institutional investor in Go-Jek. Its one play outside of the region is a stake in Bangladesh’s top ride-hailing and food delivery platform named Pathao.
In total, it has 19 companies in its portfolio including notable brands like Redmart, Zimplistic (Rotimatic), CXA and Topica.
“We have the resources now at Openspace to continue to be very hands-on in building value into our portfolio,” said Hian Goh, a Founding Partner at Openspace in a statement.
“We have seen immense opportunities from being able to work with our portfolio company to solve complex on-ground regional execution issues and we will intensify our efforts in these areas.”
According to the company, Openspace has helped its portfolio companies raise US$2.6 billion in follow-on rounds, a number that includes 13 Series Bs.
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The sectors of focus for Openspace include fintech, healthtech, edutech, consumer applications and cloud-based solutions.
The Openspace announcement stated that it expects investment opportunities to broaden into the larger economy as technology continues to grow in importance in Southeast Asia.
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