Temasek’s Vertex Closes New $290 Million Growth Venture Fund

Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg News

A woman looks towards the city skyline from a swimming pool at dusk in Singapore, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Singapore is scheduled to release second-quarter gross domestic product data on July 14. , Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Vertex Growth Fund, the youngest of a family of technology investment vehicles backed by Temasek Holdings Pte, has raised more money than initially targeted for its inaugural fund.

The Singapore-based firm said it has closed the fund at $290 million, exceeding its goal of $250 million. The Vertex Growth Fund is the newest member of a global network operated by Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd., the venture capital arm of Singaporean state investment company Temasek. It aims to back startups “emerging from the strong early-stage portfolio across the Vertex network,” James Lee, the fund’s managing director, said in a statement.

VC firms like Vertex are moving beyond early-stage investing as startups grow in size. The investors in the latest Vertex vehicle include Cathay Life Insurance Co. and Yeh I-Hau, chairman of Elan Microelectronics Corp., according to the statement.

Since the beginning of this year, the new fund has backed several startups including PerimeterX, Nuvaira, Instarem and Bicycle Therapeutics. Vertex Venture Holdings is an anchor investor in six funds across the U.S., China, Israel, Southeast Asia and India.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad Savov