BEENEXT closes $160 Mn worth funds; to deploy $55 Mn in India

Singapore-based venture capital firm BEENEXT has announced the close of its two new funds. While it raised $110 million with a mandate to deploy in Asia, half of this corpus will be invested across early-stage startups in India. 

Separately, the firm also has raised a $50 million Japan-focused fund. 

Established in 2015, BEENEXT counts companies such as BharatePe, Instamojo, Open Bank, Cube and MPL in its local portfolio. Akin to the previous fund, the recent one will majorly target early-stage startups in segments such as e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, agritech, edtech, and artificial intelligence.

Globally, it has backed more than 180 startups out of which 72 are based out of India.

“COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of global business, but we continue to see startup 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,” said Teruhide Sato, founder and managing partner of BEENEXT in a statement. 

The new funds are backed by key investors which include major institutional investors in the US along with Japanese corporations, global family offices, and marquee entrepreneurs.

One of the most recent bets of the firm was made in May in which it had led a Rs 100 crore funding round in tech-enabled logistics startup LoadSha

BEENEXT has announced the new fund after two years. It launched a $95 million worth investment vehicle in 2018, followed by a $30 million top-up fund.

Over the past few years, more than half a dozen early-stage investment firms had made debuts while existing ones raised fresh funds. VCs such as Blume Ventures, India Quotient, Orios, Good Capital, and Arkam Ventures among many others have closed their targeted funds in the past year.

The early-stage investing has turned competitive with the entry of Sequoia’s Surge accelerator program. Since its debut in March 2019, it conducted three programs and posing a significant challenge to the VCs as mentioned earlier, including Accel, SAIF, Matrix and Nexus.