Southeast Asia-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures has closed its third flagship fund on $100m.
Golden Gate Ventures Fund III, which was oversubscribed, received support from previous fund backers including Temasek, Hanwha, Naver, and EE Capital.
There were also a number of first time investors to Golden Gate including Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, Mitsui Fudosan, IDO Investments, CTBC Group, Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC), and Ion Pacific.
The final close of the fund comes just three months after the firm held its first close, which according to a previous report by TechCrunch was at over $65m.
This new vehicle will keep the same investment strategy as its predecessors which is backing Southeast Asian internet and mobile technology companies in their Series A stage.
Prior to this fundraise, Golden Gate closed its second vehicle on $60m in 2016, surpassing its initial target by $10m. Some of the investors to back Fund II included Temasek, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, two Asia-based institutions and a European-based media conglomerate.
The firm’s first and second funds have a distribution of cash of 1.56x and 0.13x, and IRRs of 48 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively, according to the firm.
Golden Gate Ventures co-founder Vinnie Lauria said, “When I compare the tech ecosystem of Southeast Asia (SEA) to other markets, it’s really hit an inflection point—annual investment is now measured in the billions. That puts SEA on a global stage with the US, China, and India. Yet there is a youthfulness that reminds me of Silicon Valley circa 2005, shortly before social media and the iPhone took off.”
Earlier in the year, Golden Gate has launched LuneX Ventures, a cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused investment vehicle. This vehicle backs Southeast Asian dedicated cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused fund with a traditional VC backing, and reportedly has a capital pool of $10m.
Golden Gate has made a number of FinTech investments over the years. Most recently, the firm took part in the $25m Series B of P2P lending platform Funding Societies.
Other FinTechs in Golden Gate’s portfolio includes expense management app Jojonomic, Southeast Asia payment gateway developer Coda Payments, and credit scoring and verification platform Lenddo.
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