<article><div dir="ltr">
We are back with our curated list of breaking news, exclusives, and trend stories over the last two weeks.</article>

<div dir="ltr">
We are back with our curated list of breaking news, exclusives, and trend stories over the last two weeks.
<h2>Fundraising updates, first</h2>
To join the venture investing bandwagon, <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/kkr-tmt-fund-for-asia-155560/">buyout major KKR &amp; Co</a> is considering raising as much as $300 million for an Asia-focused TMT fund. KKR will join a slew of PE firms such as TPG (PropertyGuru), Ekuinas (MediExpress) and Temasek (Zilingo, Sociolla) who have made some early-stage bets. KKR too has previously joined the rounds of Bangkok-based aCommerce, Philippine tech company Voyager Innovations and PropertyGuru.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/morgan-stanley-asia-pe-fund-155012/">Morgan Stanley’s Asia private equity unit</a> has so far raised $366 million for its fifth Asia PE fund. North Haven Private Equity Asia V, which was launched in September 2018, attracted commitments from 551 investors.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/proof-of-capital-edith-yeung-154963/">Proof of Capital,</a> the new $50-million Asia-focused blockchain fund, has been investing at a pace of one deal per month since its launch five months ago. The company has disclosed two new investments – blockchain platform Urbanx and cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/hks-click-ventures-fourth-fund-155473/">Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Click Ventures</a>will begin raising its $50-million fourth fund in early-2020, says its managing partner Carman Chan. The VC firm has already secured $20 million in capital commitments. Click has already set a pretty solid track record for itself. The firm’s portfolio includes the likes of Spotify, Palantir, and Docusign.
The State of Michigan Retirement Systems has committed an investment of $75 million to the <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/michigan-pension-fund-warburg-154994/">China-Southeast Asia-focused private equity fund of global buyout firm Warburg Pincus.</a> Warburg Pincus made the final close for its China-SEA focused PE fund in June after securing commitments exceeding a $4.25-billion hard cap.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/kaizen-pe-impact-154345/">Education sector-focused private equity (PE) firm Kaizen Capital Management</a> is nearing the final close of its second private equity fund at about $80-90 million. The firm is also in the process of launching a $150-million impact fund, which will provide debt capital to private sector educational institutions in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/everstone-credit-vehicle-154392/">Everstone Capital</a>is planning to launch a dedicated credit vehicle with a focus on the Indian real estate sector as early as next year, said the company’s co-founder &amp; CEO Sameer Sain. Concurrently, the firm is working on launching its fourth private equity buyout fund, which will be bigger than its predecessor fund, Everstone Capital Partners III that raised $760 million in 2015, he said, at the Asia PE-VC Summit 2019.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/lightbox-ventures-third-fund-2-154324/">Lightbox Ventures</a> that focuses on early-stage consumer technology businesses in India has made a final close of its third fund at $209.4 million. The firm has previously raised two India-focused funds.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/tvm-capital-healthcare-155349/">Dubai-headquartered specialist healthcare investment firm TVM Capital Healthcare</a> will allocate 50 per cent of its global fund for Southeast Asia while the rest will be allocated for Middle-East and Western deals, according to its chairman and CEO Helmut Schuehsler. The global fund is expected to raise around $300 million and is most likely to close in 2020.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/agility-partners-hospitality-fund-154672/">Southeast Asia-focused real estate investment firm Agility Partners</a>is raising a $150-million hospitality fund, Luxe Hospitality Fund I, executive director Gabriel Teo told us. Luxe Hospitality Fund I will be a limited partnership that will invest, develop and manage hospitality assets across Southeast Asia in a bid to capitalize on the region’s tourism uptrend as well as growing disposable incomes.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/indies-capital-final-close-154497/">Singapore-based Indies Capital Partners</a> has hit the final close of its tech fund, Indies Pelago Investments, according to the fund’s managing directors Harold Ong and Pandu Sjahrir. Launched in November 2018 with a target of $65 million, the vehicle raised over $70 million, which is already half-deployed across eight companies in Southeast Asia.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/kb-investment-mdi-ventures-154450/">KB Investment</a>, a subsidiary of South Korean financial giant KB Holding, has confirmed that it has launched a joint fund with Indonesia’s MDI Ventures, which is expected to be closed at around $100 million next year. We first wrote about this earlier this month. The fund will look to cut cheques in the range of $2-3 million to support Southeast Asian startups at Series A-B stages.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/mekong-capital-fifth-fund-155789/">Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital</a>plans a hard cap of $250 million for its fifth fund and expects to reach the target by early next year. The latest and largest vehicle in the Mekong Enterprise Fund series is two times bigger than its immediate predecessor, the $112.5 million Mekong Enterprise Fund III that has so far announced nine investments.
<h2>Startup stories</h2>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/carsome-philippines-expansion-154971/">Malaysian used car marketplace Carsome</a>wants to enter the Philippines next year, says CEO and co-founder, Eric Cheng. The Gobi Partners-backed company currently operates in four Southeast Asian markets – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Why the Philippines? It is the fourth largest used car market in the region, clocking volumes similar to its home market of Malaysia. And, competition is rising fast in Carsome’s backyard.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/malaysia-naluri-hidup-154071/">Malaysia-based digital health startup Naluri Hidup</a> is targeting to raise between $4 million and $5 million for its Series A round, which will be launched in 2020, according to its co-founder and CEO Azran Osman-Rani. The serial entrepreneur, who has helped build companies such as Malaysia’s long-haul budget airline AirAsia X and video streaming startup iflix, acknowledged that it was not easy to fundraise when he first started Naluri in 2017. The main challenge, he said, was a lack of understanding of health tech and digital therapeutics.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/akseleran-access-ventures-154722/">Indonesian peer-to-peer lending startup Akseleran</a> has raised around $8.5 million in a Series A funding round from a slew of venture capitalists including Access Ventures. The investment pegs the valuation of the fintech startup, established in early 2017, at $20-25 million.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/indonesia-bizzy-155487/">Indonesian B2B marketplace and e-procurement platform Bizzy,</a> backed by one of the country’s conglomerates Sinarmas Group, is planning to raise $50 million to expand into new business areas. The fundraising plan closely follows a major restructuring exercise with Sinarmas Group integrating two of its businesses – distribution and logistics – with Bizzy.
<h2>Deal news</h2>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/paypal-grab-2-154262/">Global digital payments major PayPal</a>’splans to invest in Grab Financial, the financial arm of Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, are off the table, sources told us. Talks were off as the global payments processor was keen to pick up a significant stake, with a path to control (at a later date) in Grab Financial, which the Singapore-headquartered firm was reluctant to relinquish, we learnt.
Philippines-based <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/metro-pacific-margautama-nusantara-155131/">Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation</a> is acquiring a nearly 25 per cent stake in Indonesian toll road operator Margautama Nusantara for 3.44 billion Philippine pesos ($67 million).
Hong Kong-listed property development and infrastructure conglomerate Road King Infrastructure Group is said to be in the race to acquire <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/road-king-waskita-155641/">Indonesia’s Waskita Toll Road</a>’s assets that are on sale. Just days back, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced its first infrastructure investment in Indonesia with the purchase of a 45 per cent stake in toll road operator PT Lintas Marga Sedaya. DealStreetAsia had, prior to the announcement, exclusively reported on CPPIB’s interest in acquiring a stake in LMS.
Lastly, I leave you with this elaborate interview of<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/creador-brahmal-154674/">Malaysia-based private equity firm Creador founder and CEO Brahmal Vasudevan</a> based on his fireside chat session at the DealStreetAsia&#8217;s Asia PE-VC Summit 2019 held in September recently. He talks about the challenging exit environment, made worse by unrealistic valuations. He says exit is a universal problem if people are paying “ridiculous valuations”, citing the examples of Uber and WeWork. “I think there has to be a shift towards an economic model, which delivers profit. When you build good businesses with strong propositions, market leadership, earnings etc, you will always have good exit options… The problem starts when you have businesses that are built on hype and when the substance is not there, and you’re counting on the next person to put in capital.”
</div>
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="blockquote">Announcements ↓
<hr />
〉DealStreetAsia&#8217;s 2019 deals report (January to August), that we launched at the Asia PE-VC Summit 2019, will be sent to premium subscribers and summit attendees on Thursday, Oct 3rd.
If you&#8217;d like a copy of the report, kindly pick up an annual or biennial premium subscription to DealStreetAsia before Thursday.
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/subs/signup/?mc_cid=2268396aec&amp;mc_eid=[UNIQID]" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Subscribe Now →</a>
&nbsp;
〉After the success of carrying our flagship private equity and venture capital conference to Jakarta, for the very first time earlier this year, we&#8217;re coming back for year two on January 15. The Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2020 will be held at The Westin, Jakarta, where we will be lining up prolific investors and entrepreneurs at the forefront of the Indonesia growth story.
In 2019, we brought you Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi, Zilingo co-founder/CEO Ankiti Bose, Bukalapak co-founder/president Fajrin Rasyid, and East Ventures co-founder/managing partner Willson Cuaca, <a href="https://events.dealstreetasia.com/jkt2020/?mc_cid=2268396aec&amp;mc_eid=[UNIQID]#Speakers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">among others</a>. Find out more about the summit&#8217;s 2019 instalment and purchase early-bird tickets at a $500 discount now.
<a href="https://events.dealstreetasia.com/jkt2020/?mc_cid=2268396aec&amp;mc_eid=[UNIQID]#Register" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Register Now →</a></blockquote>
<div dir="ltr"></div>

To join the venture investing bandwagon, buyout major KKR & Co is considering raising as much as $300 million for an Asia-focused TMT fund.

Editor’s take: The week that was – September 23-28

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

Editor’s take: The week that was – September 23-28

Start your deal-making journey now!

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief