Openspace Ventures closes third fund at hard cap of US$200m

Jaclyn Seow
March 12, 2021

Openspace Ventures ispleased to announce the final close of Openspace Ventures III, L.P. on 26 Feb2021, with total subscriptions accepted at US$200 million. Openspace nowmanages committed capital of US$425 million across three funds.

“2021 is poised to be a strong yearfor Openspace Ventures and the Southeast Asian ecosystem”, said Shane Chesson, Co-founderand Partner of Openspace. “Companies are scaling faster than ever and reachingkey milestones on the path to liquidity or exit. This progress helped Openspacefully raise Fund 3 to its hard cap in 8 months during the midst of a pandemic.We thank investors for their confidence in us as we aim to continue to deliversuperior returns and positively transform Southeast Asian economies in the longrun” The firm counts global institutional powerhouses such as Temasek,StepStone Group and Sofina in its highly-regarded stable of repeat limitedpartners, which include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, universityendowments, and insurance companies. Fund 3 saw the addition of several newglobal investors including European institutions DEG and Norfund, US-based 57Stars and Mizuho, a leading global bank headquartered in Japan.

 

stablished in 2014, theSingapore-based venture fund manager is a pioneer in the Southeast Asia region.It has a portfolio of 33 investments across key sectors including logistics, fintech,agtech, edtech, healthtech, cleantech and B2B SaaS. Selected leading companiesinvested at Series A by Openspace include Halodoc (health – Indonesia), Kumu (consumer tech – Philippines), TaniHub (agtech– Indonesia), Finnomena (fintech– Thailand), FinAccel (fintech – Indonesia), Gojek (transport, logistics, fintech – Indonesia) and Biofourmis (health– Singapore/US). Even in the midst of COVID-19, Openspace’s companies raisedmore than US$2 billion in capital in 2020, bringing total follow-on capital toUS$6.5 billion to date.

Hian Goh, Co-founder and Partner of Openspace, said, “The team andall the portfolio founders worked tirelessly through the unprecedented crisisof 2020 and it showed. We executed two successful full exits last year and madefour investments out of Fund 3 in Indonesia and Thailand in the midst of thepandemic.” 

Openspace’s team of 25 spans 12nationalities. The firm has offices in Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, and is inthe process of setting up an office in Ho Chi Minh City. The VC’s first andsecond funds, launched in 2014 and 2017, respectively, are both performing inthe top quartile against global peers, according to Cambridge Associates andPreqin benchmarks.

 

“We continue to see enormousuntapped potential in the market,” said Jessica Huang Pouleur, who joined Openspace as Executive Director in2020 to lead OSV+, the firm’s first growth fund targeted at mid-stage techopportunities in the region. “The Southeast Asian startup ecosystem continuesto evolve and is now producing a high volume of attractive mid-stage investmentopportunities. We are proud to be a meaningful contributor to the SoutheastAsia tech ecosystem’s evolution as we continue to back strong start-ups andparticipate in their next phase of growth.”

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Openspace Ventures ispleased to announce the final close of Openspace Ventures III, L.P. on 26 Feb2021, with total subscriptions accepted at US$200 million. Openspace nowmanages committed capital of US$425 million across three funds.

“2021 is poised to be a strong yearfor Openspace Ventures and the Southeast Asian ecosystem”, said Shane Chesson, Co-founderand Partner of Openspace. “Companies are scaling faster than ever and reachingkey milestones on the path to liquidity or exit. This progress helped Openspacefully raise Fund 3 to its hard cap in 8 months during the midst of a pandemic.We thank investors for their confidence in us as we aim to continue to deliversuperior returns and positively transform Southeast Asian economies in the longrun” The firm counts global institutional powerhouses such as Temasek,StepStone Group and Sofina in its highly-regarded stable of repeat limitedpartners, which include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, universityendowments, and insurance companies. Fund 3 saw the addition of several newglobal investors including European institutions DEG and Norfund, US-based 57Stars and Mizuho, a leading global bank headquartered in Japan.

 

stablished in 2014, theSingapore-based venture fund manager is a pioneer in the Southeast Asia region.It has a portfolio of 33 investments across key sectors including logistics, fintech,agtech, edtech, healthtech, cleantech and B2B SaaS. Selected leading companiesinvested at Series A by Openspace include Halodoc (health – Indonesia), Kumu (consumer tech – Philippines), TaniHub (agtech– Indonesia), Finnomena (fintech– Thailand), FinAccel (fintech – Indonesia), Gojek (transport, logistics, fintech – Indonesia) and Biofourmis (health– Singapore/US). Even in the midst of COVID-19, Openspace’s companies raisedmore than US$2 billion in capital in 2020, bringing total follow-on capital toUS$6.5 billion to date.

Hian Goh, Co-founder and Partner of Openspace, said, “The team andall the portfolio founders worked tirelessly through the unprecedented crisisof 2020 and it showed. We executed two successful full exits last year and madefour investments out of Fund 3 in Indonesia and Thailand in the midst of thepandemic.” 

Openspace’s team of 25 spans 12nationalities. The firm has offices in Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, and is inthe process of setting up an office in Ho Chi Minh City. The VC’s first andsecond funds, launched in 2014 and 2017, respectively, are both performing inthe top quartile against global peers, according to Cambridge Associates andPreqin benchmarks.

 

“We continue to see enormousuntapped potential in the market,” said Jessica Huang Pouleur, who joined Openspace as Executive Director in2020 to lead OSV+, the firm’s first growth fund targeted at mid-stage techopportunities in the region. “The Southeast Asian startup ecosystem continuesto evolve and is now producing a high volume of attractive mid-stage investmentopportunities. We are proud to be a meaningful contributor to the SoutheastAsia tech ecosystem’s evolution as we continue to back strong start-ups andparticipate in their next phase of growth.”

RETURN TO INSIGHTS