Singapore-based Insignia Ventures Partners has closed its second fund, drawing in USD 200 million from premier institutional investors such as sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, foundations, and renowned family offices from Asia, Europe, and North America.
Yinglan Tan, former Sequoia Capital venture partner and founding managing partner of Insignia, said this will further Insignia’s efforts to focus on early-stage technological development in Southeast Asia, particularly at a time when smart capital and top talent are flowing into the region.
In 2018, Insignia closed its maiden fund with USD 120 million, which was a record for a Southeast Asian VC at the time. Notable companies in the firm’s portfolio include Shipper, a tech-enabled e-commerce fulfillment solution in Indonesia; Janio, an end-to-end logistics service in Southeast Asia; and Logivan, a platform matching truckers with shipping capacity in Vietnam.
A recent report on Southeast Asia’s tech investments in the first half of 2019 by Cento Ventures showed that early-stage activities, meaning small deals less than USD 500,000, experienced a spike in the first six months of the year, reaching 254 deals after remaining fairly flat between 2016 and 2018.