Beenext raises $160 mn; to focus on Indian start-ups tapping post-Covid era

The Singapore-based venture capital firm plans to allocate 50% of the fund exclusively for the Indian start-up ecosystem

Beenext, the Singapore-based venture capital firm, said that it has closed two new funds by raising a total of $160 million. The first fund, 'Beenext Emerging Asia Fund' of $110 million will be focused on empowering early-stage start-ups and founders in India as well as South East Asia, to accelerate digital technologies led innovation and growth in the new normal across sectors.

Beenext plans to allocate about 50 per cent of the fund exclusively for the Indian start-up ecosystem. It has been doing so consistently over the last three funds. The firm said it believes in India’s ability to lead innovation and growth in the post-Covid era of accelerated global digitization. The “Beenext Emerging Asia Fund,” will target early-stage Indian start-ups in the e-commerce, fintech, health-tech, agri-tech, edu-tech and AI and data-driven technology domains.

“The relentless attitude of founders will mean that solutions for a post-Covid world will also come from them. Now more than ever, we feel the need to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure we bounce back as a strong community of founders,” said Teruhide Sato, founder and managing partner, Beenext.  “We look forward to co-creating and growing together with more start-ups in India.”

The second fund of $50 million will be exclusively for software-as-a-service businesses in Japan to accelerate digital transformation in each industry. 

Beenext has focused on India since its inception in 2015 having invested in 72 Indian start-ups. Some of them include NoBroker, Droom, CitrusPay, BharatPe, Mobile Premier League and MilkBasket.

The new fund marks the company’s 4th consecutive fund focused on India and the biggest outside South East Asia. The investors for this fund include major institutional investors in the US; along with Japanese corporations, global family offices, and entrepreneurs backing the next generation founders. The new funds are designed to connect founders from around the world to the Beenext founder’s community to gain networking and access global best practices.