Singapore- and US-based venture capital firm B Capital Group has closed its $250-million early-stage Ascent Fund II, according to a statement by the firm.
The Ascent Fund II is B Capital’s “first dedicated early-stage fund”, investing in pre-seed to Series A rounds globally, with an emphasis on US and Asian startups. The sectors it targets include digital healthcare, enterprise software, fintech and logistics, among others.
The statement added that the Ascent team is led by chair and general partner Howard Morgan, co-founder and
managing partner Eduardo Saverin, general partners Gabe Greenbaum and Karen Page, and partner Karan Mohla.
In March, B Capital was reported to have raised at least $1.1 billion from 101 investors for its third global growth fund, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund had a target of $2 billion, sources aware of the development had told DealStreetAsia then.
B Capital oversees $6.5 billion in assets under management (AUM), with a global portfolio of 25 unicorns, of which 12 are from Southeast Asia and India. Some of these include names such as India’s edtech major BYJU’S and medical platform PharmEasy, Indonesian grab-and-go coffee chain Kopi Kenangan, and Singapore’s Carro and Ninja Van.
The firm has also seen a slew of top-deck appointments in recent months to help manage its upsized portfolio.
It made three partner appointments in February alone — Matt Levinson for fintech, blockchain and property investments; Karan Mohla for early-stage bets in India and Southeast Asia; and Adam Seabrook for later-stage investments in digital health and allied sectors.
Last December, B Capital also appointed Sandi Sadek as a partner and chief people officer in Singapore, as well as former Grab fundraising chief John Chua to oversee portfolio capital formation for Asia from Hong Kong.
B Capital, started by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Bain Capital veteran Raj Ganguly, began as a growth-stage investor in 2015, writing Series B-D cheques in B2B and B2B2C companies across enterprise technology, fintech, health tech, consumer enablement technology, transportation and logistics.