SingTel Innov8 is the Venture Capital arm of SingTel group, investing and backing tech-based startups across the globe. The corporate venture capital firm is based out of Singapore and has offices around the world including key locations like San Francisco and Tel Aviv.
SingTel Innov8 – About The Company
Founded in 2010 and wholly under the control of the SingTel Group, SingTel Innov8 is a tech-savvy investment firm. The firm backs startups that provide next-gen technological services and solutions that propel quantum leaps in network capabilities, digital content and futuristic devices.
Just like all other Venture Capital firms, SingTel Innov8 also offers tech support and access to the resources available to the SingTel Group. As a massive entity in its sector, the Venture Capital firm is the perfect backer for cutting edge tech-based startups to tap into a tremendous pool of knowledge and resources to improve their product as well as scale their business.
Funding
SingTel Innov8 has only had one round of fundraising during its lifespan. Their single venture fund SingTel Innov8 announced during its inception in 2010 raised $250 Million as capital. Since then, the company has gone on to invest in an array of companies worldwide.
The Roadmap
SingTel Innov8 looks to invest in companies during their seed to early growth stages. They tend to provide market access to these companies in the Asia Pacific as well as the African region but will back companies worldwide. Depending on the phase of development, the funding amount can vary from S$100,000 to 30 Million, and even more for exceptional cases.
The company has screening processes for any referrals, recommendations and enquiries that decide whether the startup falls in their focus group of sectors. Their business due diligence also consists of market analysis, competition research, technology analysis, as well as customer reviews and references. Their tight screening also evaluates the company according to their Investment Presentations, and scrutinize all aspects of the company, the product, the market and the business model to come to their decision.
Singtel Innov8 has 117 investments in their portfolio, with 25 of them lead investments and 9 Diversity Investments. They have also made their exit from 35 companies.
The most recent stake of the firm was made in Monogoto, an Israeli startup that manages private LTE/5G Networks. Their seed round managed to gather a total of $11 Million.
They have also made a post IPO investment worth IDR551B in the Indonesian non-foriegn exchange private commercial banking firm Bank Bisnis, in May 2021.
Their latest diversity investment was in the Women founded healthcare support firm AICure. The company leverages AI to study patient response to treatments and has managed to raise a total of $24.5 million during its Series C rounds.
The Verdict
The pandemic has boosted the growth of firms that combine modern technology with traditional fields. The rising popularity of online services that require a faster better network, digital infrastructure and modern devices is a positive sign for such companies, and allying with SingTel is the best for both sides in this economy. As a firm that specializes in a rapidly growing niche of technology, the company aims to leverage its resources to continue to fund leaders in the sector.
Discussion about this post