Asia Partners closes debut fund at US$384m in commitments

SINGAPORE-BASED growth equity investor Asia Partners on Wednesday announced the final close of its debut fund at US$384 million in commitments.

The fund's limited partners (LPs) include the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft from Germany, which offers financing and support to private enterprises.

More than 7 per cent of the fund's capital is from Asia Partners' co-founders and advisory board, which is chaired by Hsieh Fu Hua, a former chief executive of the Singapore Exchange.

Asia Partners was founded in 2019 by six co-founders: former Sea president Nicholas Avinash Nash, Oliver Minho Rippel, Jill Cheong Hsi Min, Pitra Ciputra Harun, Kien Nguyen, and Vorapol Supanusonti.

Other LPs of its debut fund range from institutional investors, family offices and corporations to individual investors, the firm said in a press release. Asia Partners' investments to date include budget hotel startup RedDoorz, where it led a US$70 million Series C round, Carsome, where it led a US$30 million Series D round.

Mr Nash, the firm's managing partner and a member of the investment committee, said: "We look forward to continuing our investment programme and to applying our co-founding team's and advisory board's collective experience to helping our companies grow, both geographically and strategically."

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Mr Hsieh added: "South-east Asia is an increasingly strategic region for global investors, driven both by rising affluence and by the increasing digitisation of daily life. Almost every sector of our economies has the potential to be transformed by technology."

Asia Partners' legal adviser on the fundraise was Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Southern Right Capital Ltd and GCA Advisors acted as placement agents.