Temasek Holdings leads financing for pureLifi in tech expansion

[SINGAPORE] Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings is the lead investor in the latest round of financing by Edinburgh-based telecommunications company pureLiFi as it expands its technology holdings.

The Series-B round brought pureLiFi's total financing to more than US$10 million, it said in an e-mailed statement. The funding will support the development of the firm's technology that uses light-emitted diodes to provide wireless communication systems with the potential to be faster than current WiFi technology, according to the statement.

Aedan Lai, a spokesman for Temasek, confirmed the investment and declined to comment further.

The investment is part of Temasek's expansion into the media, telecommunications, and technology industries. The state investment firm, which last week reported the first drop in the value of its stakes in seven years, has added to holdings in those areas while trimming exposure to traditional banks.

As a group, technology, media and telecom companies overtook financial firms as Temasek's biggest industry sector for the first time in a decade.

PureLiFi was founded in 2012 as a spinoff from the University of Edinburgh and focuses on communication technologies using light.

BLOOMBERG