Singapore-based venture capital firm iGlobe Partners is raising a $200-million fifth fund to back deeptech startups, as first reported by Bloomberg.
The fund will be an extension of iGlobe’s existing strategy, which centres on intellectual property, and leveraging it to build commercial value. According to its official website, iGlobe focuses on startups in four main categories: smart cities; the future of money, the future of bio, and the future of health.
In areas such as synthetic biology, iGlobe looks for firms sitting at the confluence of deeptech, biology, and chemistry, creating new sustainable materials, foods, and therapeutics that leverage on the discoveries and inventions in this field.
For fintech, the firm looks at innovative business models that will provide access to banking, payments, retail, insurance, and financial services in novel ways, across huge populations of users.
The report added that four of iGlobe’s portfolio companies went public last year. They are Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc, NerdWallet Inc, Hippo Holdings Inc, and Matterport Inc.
The firm has also made some recent exits in Asia, including Singapore-based co-working space and membership club, The Great Room, which was acquired by Industrious; and Singapore-based fintech startup Hoolah, which was acquired by ShopBack.
iGlobe Partners is led by founding managing partner Koh Soo Boon, a self-declared ‘accidental capitalist’. Koh started iGlobe in 1999 while in San Francisco working for Singapore Technologies. The first fund was launched in 2000, backed by Singapore’s Economic Development Board, shortly before the dotcom bust.
The firm has since expanded significantly to manage several funds exceeding $500 million for its investors.