Singapore's VCs active in the India - South East Asia startup corridor

I spent the first week of September in Singapore and due to the hyper efficiency of this city – travel times are almost always within 15 minutes; meetings always start on time – I was able to meet with a wide range of startup investors from the region – from seed to growth capital.

These funds invest in South East Asia and/or India (in most cases, both), so if you're a startup raising in either region, get in touch (list below).

Like India, SE Asia has a large and fast growing middle class, with sizable populations at higher per capita incomes (Indonesia: 280M; 2x higher GDP per capita vs. India; Vietnam: 100M; 70% higher PCY). There are close ties between our regions. One in four of all investment dollars into India have come from Singapore, it is our largest source of FDI for the last twenty years!

Conversely, regional unicorns like Gojek have utilised Indian engineering talent based in India and in their own HQs since as early as 2016. India's consumer brands like Heads Up for Tails and Livspace have stores in Singapore's shopping centres. Singapore now has offices for more than 9,000 Indian companies, including half a dozen GSF startups, and the largest concentration of IIT+IIM graduates in any city outside India.

A little over a decade ago, the Singapore VC/startup ecosystem barely existed. There is now capital for every stage of business. Over the next ten years, most funds will be investing in both regions (SE Asia/India); and startups will want to access the consuming class across markets. For SE Asia's startups, India presents the largest homogeneous, open, single-market outside the US, with a strong regulatory environment and broad based digital public infrastructure. For Indian startups, the thesis of catering to a traditionally underserved, newly affluent consuming class applies as much to SE Asia as it does back home.

Here is a list of Singapore's most active funds that invest in SE Asia and India, or in some cases are focused on one of the regions (listed in meeting order, not alphabetical):

Alpha JWC Ventures is Indonesia's largest early to growth stage fund, investing across South East Asia, as well as Indonesian-origin founders based in other geos (the US, Australia, China).

BEENEXT is one of India's and South East Asia's most active seed stage investors for over a decade, now also looking at growth opportunities in both regions.

Monk's Hill Ventures is one of the first VC firms established in Singapore, investing across SE Asia at Series A. Co-Founder Kuo-Yi Lim illustrated the large opportunity the region presents with a surprising example: Grab's ride hailing business in SE Asia is twice as large as Ola in India.

Powerhouse Ventures has been investing at the seed stage in India for a decade, including India-focused consumer and B2B startups and a number of cross-border SaaS startups. We have made a number of investments together.

Eurazeo is a multi-asset private markets investor, investing globally in VC through sector specific funds with global mandates, in healthcare, smart cities (tech for low carbon, self sustaining cities) and a $200M insurance-tech fund that is also active in India and South East Asia.

DSG Consumer Partners was India's first consumer-focused fund and is the fund of choice for over eighty consumer brands across India and South East Asia. It invests up to $5M at first cheque.

SGInnovate is a Singapore government sponsored deeptech fund, backing real innovation in Singapore (Seed to Series C) as well as globally (preference for Series A to C). Current focus themes include healthcare, agri, sustainability, advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity.

SG Growth's Hiro Mashita and team have been investing in India for over a decade at the seed stage, writing the first cheque into Razorpay, Slice, Ninjacart and my own startup, BetterButter. The team invests across emerging markets.

January Capital invests from Seed to Series B, across SaaS, Fintech and Commerce Enablement, across both SE Asia and India. Their sweet spot at seed is ~$1M.

B Capital invests from Seed to Growth and recently closed a dedicated VC fund for earlier stage opportunities (pre-seed to Series A). The fund invests across India, South East Asia and the US.

Saison Capital is the venture arm of Credit Saison, and is a GP and LP in India and South East Asia. The fund invests from seed to Series B and is sector-agnostic.

Altara Ventures is a leading SE Asia VC firm investing from Pre-Series A to Series B. It invests across sectors with offices across the region and has also made its first investment in India.

M Venture Partners (MVP) is a pre-seed/seed investor in SE Asia and India and is actively investing in India, including a currently running program in India to invest up to $2M in total across 10 cheques in idea stage-onwards startups.

General Catalyst (not Singapore based) is a global seed to growth investor that recently merged with Venture Highway in India to offer capital across stages. It most recently led the $340M round in Zepto.

PROMAFT Partners stands for Product Market Fit and this new fund will invest $3-10M cheques in Indian startup founders that have found early signs of PMF.

Jungle Ventures is an idea to growth stage investor. First Cheque, their seed stage program, writes min. $2M cheques for those at the idea stage onwards. The firm is present across India and SE Asia.

Antler runs its Residency Programs in India and across South East Asia (with partners present in each country of the region), for founders to come together as well as for existing teams/startups. Both India and SE Asia have $70M+ funds each at seed, plus funds for follow-on capital.

Singtel Innov8 is the corporate venture capital arm of Singtel, investing through an evergreen $350M vehicle with a global mandate for startups that benefit from, leverage or have applications for telecom networks: consumer and B2B.

Thanks to everyone for their time + insights on the startup ecosystem across both regions: Jefrey Joe Hero Choudhary Kuo-Yi Lim (林国毅) Kshitij Golwalkar Albert Shyy Deepak Shahdadpuri Nikita Gupta Hiro Mashita Roy Ong Kabir Narang Karan Mohla Visa Kannan Gavin Teo Tanuja Rajah Mayank Parekh Rahul Garg, CFA Raghav Bahl Rishab Malik Markus Bruderer Sharan Makhija Vikram Beniwal Iesan Tsai