Sovereign funds from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have driven a significant increase in Gulf investment in south-east Asia’s start-ups, marking a rare bright spot as fundraising in the region tumbles to its lowest in six years.
There have been 59 deals in the region involving a Gulf-based investor in 2022-23, according to data from Refinitiv, up from seven deals in 2018-19.
The surge comes as venture capital funding has plunged globally and Chinese investors have reined in their investments in the region. The activity of technology giants including Alibaba and Tencent, which had been pumping billions of dollars into south-east Asian tech and ecommerce groups, has slowed.
The Qatar Investment Authority, which has $475bn of assets under management, is stepping up dealmaking in the fast-growing region home to 750mn people. In 2022 the Qatari fund invested in Carsome, a Malaysia-based online used car platform, in a $300mn financing round.
That year the Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund, launched by the United Arab Emirates’ finance ministry, backed Indonesian software company Avani and Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company acquired a strategic stake in Singapore carbon exchange AirCarbon.
Meanwhile Aramco Ventures, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s oil company Saudi Aramco, in October led a $10mn fundraising round in Redex, a Singapore-based provider of services to manage renewable energy certificates.
No comments:
Post a Comment