<article>Australia&#8217;s Blue Sky Alternative Investments is looking to raise $17 million to invest in Southeast Asian fintech startup Akulaku.</article>

Australia&#8217;s Blue Sky Alternative Investments is looking to raise $17 million to invest in Southeast Asian fintech startup Akulaku.
Akulaku claims to be the first online mall where users can buy every item on instalments without needing a credit card. It currently operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Blue Sky&#8217;s planned fundraising for Akulaku was first <a href="https://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/blue-sky-alternative-investments-seeks-24m-for-indonesian-payments-play-20180528-h10myo">reported by the Australian Financial Review (AFR)</a> that cited a marketing document sent to potential investors. The document, the report said, sought investments in a &#8216;fintech venture capital opportunity&#8217; in the form of the Akulaku Fund, targeting 40 per cent plus net annual return per annum.
When contacted by this portal, a source aware of Blue Sky&#8217;s plans confirmed the firm is raising the Akulaku fund.
Akulaku, however, denied any truth in the report, saying it was “not accurate at all”. It, however, did confirm having held talks with Blue Sky.
In June last year, DEALSTREETASIA had reported that Akulaku raised $5-10 million in funding from a clutch of overseas venture capital investors, including DCM Ventures. According to Crunchbase, the investors in the round were Legend Capital, Qiming Ventures Partners and Shunwei Capital.
The company’s previous backers include Eight Roads Ventures, Arbor Ventures and China Growth Capital.
At $17 million, the proposed investment in Akulaku would be one of the largest in a fintech firm in Southeast Asia. Last month, the region witnessed what is believed to be the largest financing round for a P2P fintech firm in Southeast Asia when Modalku (Funding Societies) closed a Series B funding round of $25 million.
Blue Sky has been beset with damaging allegations by US-based short-seller Glaucus Research Group that has accused the investment firm of overstating its size, exaggerating its performance and overvaluing assets.
The Australian firm has denied the allegations, but the claims have led the company&#8217;s shares to slide, with as much as $520 million knocked off its market capitalization at the start of May.
Prior to the dispute, Blue Sky had in March announced a capital raising of A$125 million ($98 million) – A$100 million in fully underwritten institutional placement and A$25 million ($20 million) in non-underwritten share purchase plan (SPP).
The company recently exited its investment in childcare centre operator Foundation Early Learning at a discount of up to 23 per cent to carrying value.
Founded in 2006, Blue Sky specialises in managing investments across the four major alternative asset classes – private equity, private real estate, real assets and hedge funds.
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<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/fintech-startup-akulaku-funding-dcm-ventures-chinese-investors-75514/">Exclusive: Fintech startup Akulaku bags funding from DCM Ventures, others</a>

At $17 million, the proposed investment in Akulaku would be one of the largest in a fintech firm in Southeast Asia.

Australia's Blue Sky seeks to raise $17m to back Southeast Asian fintech firm Akulaku

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Australia's Blue Sky seeks to raise $17m to back Southeast Asian fintech firm Akulaku

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