Goodwater Capital, a US-based venture capital firm that has been an active investor in Asia, has announced raising $1 billion in capital commitments for its two new funds Goodwater Capital V and Goodwater Infinity III.
The two new funds will continue to invest in global early- and growth-stage consumer tech startups, according to the Califonia-based investor. The latest fundraising brings the VC firm’s total assets under management to $3.3 billion.
DealStreetAsia had reported in October that Goodwater Capital was raising $600 million for Goodwater Capital V and another $400 million for Goodwater Infinity III.
In 2021, aside from raising $1 billion for Goodwater Capital IV and Goodwater Infinity II, the firm also secured $500 million to support late-stage hyper-growth companies.
The firm raised $350 million for Goodwater Capital III in 2018 and $241.6 million for Goodwater Infinity I in 2019. Overall, Goodwater Capital has raised a total of $2.1 billion across eight funds.
Founded seven years ago, the US investor has made investments in over 25 countries, and over 140 companies, powering $150 billion in annualised financial and e-commerce services. Its portfolio includes the world’s tech giants such as Facebook, Coupang, and Kakao.
In 2017, Goodwater was reported to have sold the lip-syncing app Musical.Ly for upward of $1 billion to ByteDance. Musical.Ly was dissolved and combined with TikTok.
The firm’s core funds are dedicated to Series A through Series D startups. It also runs the Genesis programme for seed companies and has issued cheques to 600 seed-stage startups across 50 countries.
“Starting something from scratch is one of the hardest pursuits someone can attempt in life. It’s not easy – it’s incredibly hard and we started Goodwater, our own startup in a way, to provide a platform for consumer tech entrepreneurs to feel at home and to thrive in,” co-founder and managing partner Eric Kim said.
Goodwater Capital’s investments, which had primarily been focused on South Korea, have ramped up in South and Southeast Asia since the start of 2021. It invested in over a dozen Asian tech companies last year, eight of which come from India and Southeast Asia.
The firm’s transactions in Asia before 2021 were in South Korean and Japanese tech businesses such as fintech companies Toss and Kyash, proptech Dongnae and media startup Spoon Radio.
In Southeast Asia, Goodwater Capital’s investments include Vietnamese fintech startups MoMo and Nano Technologies; Vietnamese e-commerce firm Kilo; and Indonesian fintech company Bukuwarung.