SEA’s Largest VC Sets Up Base in KL, Funding Opportunities for Fintech Startups?
by Fintech News Malaysia March 1, 2018Vickers Venture Partners, Southeast Asia’s largest VC, announced the opening of its Malaysian headquarters. Vickers Venture Partner Advisors, based in Kuala Lumpur, will be the newest outpost of the Vickers Global Network and will focus on realising Malaysia’s large innovative and disruptive potential.
Dr Finian Tan, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vickers Venture Partners, said “Southeast Asia is one of the key pillars to our investment strategy. We view the initiatives of the Malaysian Government, led by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), as one of the key attractions of Malaysia. Malaysia also represents an ideal location for Vickers as it is the region’s antenna and is a key destination in the ‘One
Belt One Road’ regional economic development initiative.”
Vickers Venture Partners recently raised Southeast Asia’s largest non-government linked VC fund – a US$ 230 million fund (fund V). Vickers Venture Partners’ fund IV is the world’s best performing fund as per Preqin data. Dr. Finian Tan, Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners, is best known as being the first investor in Baidu, investing US$ 6 million when the startup was valued at US$ 20 million.
His other recent big investment is in San Diego based biotech startup Samumed, where he and his co-investors own approximately 11% of the company which is now valued at over US$ 12 billion. Their fintech porfolio includes companies like MatchMove and M-Daq. Given their existing portfolio, it will be interesting to observe if any of the local fintech startups with catch the eye of Vickers Venture Partners.
Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, CEO of MDEC – the lead government agency driving the country’s digital economy – welcomed the move into Malaysia by Vickers Venture Partners: “In these days of increasing digital transformation and rapid disruption, it is becoming more important than ever to secure and attract more venture capital investment in our ecosystem to encourage entrepreneurship and help to rapidly grow exciting startups into wider markets.”
“The opening of Vickers Venture Partners’ Malaysia headquarters is another testament to the strength of Malaysia’s Digital Economy strategies to foster greater growth and innovation. It also shows their level of confidence in our ecosystem,” said Datuk Yasmin, adding that this latest news also bodes well for Malaysia’s Digital Hubs strategy and the Malaysia Tech Entrepreneur Programme; both of which are focused on speeding up startups and scale-ups, connecting businesses to encourage knowledge-sharing and further catalyse the digital economy.
Will Vickers Venture Partners new Kuala Lumpur outpost spell more much needed funding opportunity for Malaysian fintech companies? How many of our local fintech startups will fit into Vickers Venture Partner’s definition of “innovative and disruptive potential”, only time will tell.
