Eight Roads Ventures has opened an office in Singapore with a high focus on the Southeast Asian market. Raj Dugar, Managing Partner, Asia, will be taking a lead in Singapore and has moved from India for the same.
Eight Roads is targeting to infuse capital in startups in the rising sectors like technology, healthcare, consumer and financial services. Raj, who had joined the venture capital firm in 2007, was responsible for setting up the India team. In an official statement, he reiterated how Southeast Asia has a number of early-stage and late-stage funds that cater well to the startups and mature businesses.
But, the companies seeking to raise series B, C, D funding aren’t able to secure capital due to the limited access to global funds operating in the region. Hence, they are particularly looking forward to investing in early-growth and growth stage investments up to $30 million mainly participating in B, C, D rounds of funding. He added,
We see phenomenal opportunity in this segment, and look forward to helping entrepreneurs as they scale their business, providing access to our global network of expertise and contacts.
Southeast Asia has a thriving startup ecosystem which has been growing rapidly in the past few years. It has been witnessing drastic changes when it comes to the rise in internet access to the rising population in the region and the pace with which consumers have been keeping up with the latest trends in technology.
This has attracted the attention of investors from across the globe. The Bermuda-headquartered firm has also invested in three businesses based out of the region until now, namely, one-stop banking platform, Silot, virtual credit card company, Akulaku and, generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Eywa Pharma.
Eight Roads Ventures is the principal investment arm of financial services corporation, Fidelity International. Formerly known as Fidelity Growth Partners, it has offices in China, Japan, India and, the UK.
