Quest Venture Raising Two Funds
Singapore's venture firm Quest Venture is raising monies for an open fund and impact fund as it believes it is the right time to do so.
Quest Venture is raising between $50 million to US$100 million for its open fund, and raising $20 million for its impact fund, according to local media reports. This is the first time that the firm is raising monies from limited partners (LPs).
Managing Partner James Tan believes the time is ripe to launch the two funds because the right people are in place, with the firm having appointed serial entrepreneur Goh Yiping and industry veteran Jeffrey Seah as partners. Goh and Seah were previously venture partners since 2016 and 2017, respectively.
«It's a combination of us getting together and thinking that with this kind of calibre, why not see if we can also raise some more money from outside to buy into our thesis?» said Tan, who was quoted in Business Times (behind paywall).
Three Factors
The firm is shifting its focus on what Tan labels as «digital economy», away from the digital commerce space it dabbled in for the last eight years. In those years, the firm has concentrated its investments in digital commerce such as purchasing platforms, payment systems, remittance, and media that influence purchases.
Three factors that make up its investment thesis are: (i) startups that can scale within a geographical area, (ii) replicate the business in another area, and (iii) those that function within a large Internet economy.
Track Record
Known for financing local startups such as Carousell, 99.co and Shopback, Quest was initially funded from Tan's capital that came from being the co-founder of Nasdaq-listed firm 55Tuan, an online deals website in China. It has since invested in more than 40 active companies. With the firm's track record, the firm is currently wooing potential limited partners (LPs) with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 41 per cent.
Goh was co-founder and chief product officer of MatahariMall.com, a Lippo Group-backed omnichannel fashion e-commerce site in Indonesia. Prior to that, she co-founded All Deals Asia, the South-east Asia e-commerce aggregator that was acquired by Lippo in 2014. Seah worked at global media agency Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) over 15 years in two separate stints, which included a role as chief executive of South-east Asia.
Targeting Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam
Quest aims to do a first close for both funds by June 30 and a final close by the end of this year. The first close is expected to be US$20 million for the open fund and $4 million for the impact fund.
Each fund will invest in 40 to 60 startups, whereby ticket sizes of $500,000 to $1 million will be issued from the open fund. Follow-on investments will range between $1 million and $2 million. For the impact fund, the initial cheques will be smaller at $100,000 to $500,000. Quest is targeting are Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
