Singapore-based venture capital firm BEENEXT has announced the closing of two new funds, raising a total of $160 million.

The first, the $110-million BEENEXT Emerging Asia Fund, will offer funding to early-stage start-ups in India as well as South-East Asia. BEENEXT plans to allocate about 50 per cent of the fund exclusively for the Indian start-up ecosystem. The second fund of $50 million will be exclusively for SaaS businesses in Japan.

The BEENEXT Emerging Asia Fund will target early-stage Indian start-ups in the e-commerce, fintech, healthtech, agritech, edutech and AI/data driven technology domains, said a statement. BEENEXT has focussed on India since its inception in 2015, having invested in 72 start-ups in the country, it added.

This marks the company’s fourth consecutive fund focussed on India, and its biggest outside South-East Asia. It has allocated a significantly high portion for India as it believes in the country’s ability to lead innovation and growth in the post-Covid, said the statement.

“Covid-19 has impacted every aspect of global business, but we continue to see start-up founders pushing the boundaries to not only survive but thrive in this environment. The relentless attitude of founders will mean that solutions for a post-Covid world will also come from them. Now more than ever, we feel the need to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure we bounce back as a strong community of founders. BEENEXT has always believed in building businesses together with founders and fellow local co-investors to have a lasting impact. We look forward to co-creating and growing together with more start-ups in India,” Teruhide Sato, founder and Managing Partner, BEENEXT, said in the statement.

The investors for this fund include major institutional investors in the US, along with Japanese corporations, global family offices and entrepreneurs. The fund’s investors will also play a key role as partners with these start-ups to create strong businesses beyond the monetary commitments, the statement added.

BEENEXT has invested in more than 180 start-ups across the globe. Its existing India portfolio includes NoBroker, Droom, CitrusPay, BharatPe, Bank Open, YAP, Mobile Premier League, Trell, WorkIndia, Healthians, mfine, Servify, Fleetx, Cropin and MilkBasket. Some of its notable investments in South-East Asia and Japan include Zilingo, a digital platform for fashion, Vietnam's largest online marketplace Sendo, and Japan's largest HR SaaS company, SmartHR.

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