Singapore Venture Builder Hatcher Announces US$100M Venture Fund
E27.CO: Singapore-based venture builder platform Hatcher has announced the launch of the Hatcher Fund, an early-stage venture fund with a target size of US$100 million.
The Hatcher Fund will be advised by Hatcher and operated by Gateway Investment Management Services, a fund management firm based in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). It will be administered by Maples Fund Services, with offices in Singapore and Dubai.
The fund will focus primarily on later-stage fin-tech and IT investments seeded by Hatcher in Singapore and Dubai, such as ApexPeak, DropMySite, InvitGlobal, and Telr.
“The Hatcher Fund will enable us to move beyond seed stage investment to later stage growth investments – and play a greater role in supporting entrepreneurs at a global level,” said John Sharp, CEO, Hatcher. “While seed stage investing has delivered us very good returns to date, having the ability to lead and co-invest at a later stage will allow us to increase our investment positions and build on these early-stage returns,” he added.
Hatcher’s investments in fin-tech include trade finance portal ApexPeak and merchant finance and payment processing service Telr. According to Hatcher, a focus on non-US investment is the the way to go.
“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve built in Singapore and the incredible partnerships that we’ve built with investors in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America,” said Harveen Narulla, Executive Chairman, Hatcher. “The formation of the Hatcher fund is the next stage in our growth. This unique fund is long overdue.”
According to Ernst and Young, of the US$86 billion invested globally in venture-based businesses in 2014 , an increasing percentage is being invested in non-US startups. This puts China firmly in the number two position worldwide. Research compiled by Ernst and Young shows investment into Beijing-based ventures during 2014 increased 237 per cent over the same period in 2013, compared to just 47 per cent growth for the US over the same period.
Investments in non-US ventures now total more than a third of investment globally – the largest percentage yet recorded for foreign investment versus US domestic investment.
Read more on the topic: TECHINASIA, DEALSTREETASIA
