In addition to Southeast Asia, Singapore-based Qualgro is also actively investing in Australian startups

Singapore-based venture capital (VC) firm Qualgro today announced that it has completed the first close of its US$100 Million second fund, with 60 per cent of the fund already committed.

The new fund followed its US$50 million first fund, which has invested in 19 companies over the last three years.

It includes large listed corporates, financial institutions, and institutional investors in this new fund.

Qualgro invests mainly in B2B companies in the data and software-as-a-service (SaaS) sectors, particularly in Series A and B rounds.

The firm plans to continue on implementing this strategy with its second fund, with a multi-stage investment approach and a stronger emphasis on Series B rounds. It aims to invest US$5-10 million in each startup, instead of just US$3-5 million as in the previous fund.

It also plans to invest in up to 15 companies.

“We are a talent hunter of globally-minded entrepreneurs, who are able to build regional and global businesses, based on true tech advantages. We believe that Southeast Asia, with its more than 600 million people, and extensive research labs and universities, has enough entrepreneurial and engineering talent to build tech companies with comparable quality to the best of other regions in the world,” Qualgro Managing Partner Heang Chhor said in a press statement.

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“In our current portfolio, we have companies from Southeast Asia that are already successful in China, Europe and the US,” he added.

Founded in 2015, Qualgro’s portfolio companies that were founded in Singapore include PatSnap and Eyeota.

It has also invested in Southeast Asian startups such as Southeast Asia, such as Appier, Funding Societies, ShopBack and Wavecell.

In addition to Southeast Asia, Qualgro is also actively investing in Australia. Its portfolio companies in the country includes Data Republic, Nura, OpenAgent and Fluent Commerce.

Prior to founding Qualgro, Heang has spent 26 years as a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, a member of the McKinsey Global Board, and has worked many years in Europe and the last decade in Asia, especially in Japan and in Asean.

He was also an entrepreneur with his own company prior to joining McKinsey & Company.

The two other partners are Jason Edwards, previously at private equity firm Clearwater Capital in Southeast Asia, and Peter Huynh, who was at Singtel Innov8 and has established Optus Innov8 in Australia.

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Image Credit: Qualgro

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