VERTEX Ventures Southeast Asia and India (VVSEAI), a Temasek-linked venture capital (VC) investor, has closed its fifth fund at US$541 million.

It exceeded an initial target of US$450 million, and was higher than the US$305 million raised for the firm’s previous fund completed in 2019, Vertex said.

Fund V is backed by existing and new limited partners that include sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, corporates and family offices across Asia and Europe.

New limited partners include Japan Investment Corp, International Finance Corp and DEG, a German development finance institution.

The fund’s investment size will range from US$2 million to US$8 million.

VVSEAI Fund V consists of a main fund of US$491 million, and a parallel co-investment envelope of US$50 million that will co-invest alongside the main fund in startups led by women founders.

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“More than 35 per cent of the startups in VVSEAI Fund IV have at least one woman founder and this envelope will be used to further the fund’s intention of supporting more women  entrepreneurs,” the firm said in a statement.

VVSEAI is one of six major funds in the Vertex global network of venture capital funds. Temasek-owned Vertex Holdings is an anchor investor in each fund, which is independently managed and has its own specialisation.

“We continue to be bullish about the tech startup opportunities in this region as we see the ecosystem evolving deeper and becoming more mature,” said Chua Joo Hock, managing partner of VVSEAI.

VVSEAI was an early investor in tech unicorns such as Grab, intellectual property company PatSnap and fintech company Nium.

The firm, which focuses on high-growth startups seeking their early round of institutional VC funding, has made more than 80 investments.

VVSEAI has eight investing partners with 22 investing staff across its offices in Singapore, Bengaluru, Jakarta, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Gurugram, India.