The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Genesis Alternative Ventures, the Southeast Asian firm headquartered in Singapore, announced yesterday that it has raised total commitments of $125 million for its second Southeast Asia-focused venture debt fund.

The firm’s Fund II entity saw the return of more than 80 per cent of investors from Fund I, including Aozora Bank, Korea Development Bank, Mizuho Leasing, and Sassoon Investment Corporation and Silverhorn. New and notable investors in Fund II include Japanese mega bank, Mizuho Bank, and OurCrowd, the online global investing platform.

Genesis extends debt to revenue-generating companies that are backed by venture capital funds. These startups typically do not qualify for regular bank loans because they lack collateral, or have not yet reached profitability, and/or their founders and institutional investors are keen to take venture debt to build up the company’s creditworthiness while equally seeking to minimise unnecessary equity dilution. This publication wrote about venture debt as a specific area of investment here.

Other news
Separately, Genesis and Indonesia’s digital-focused bank, Superbank, said in August last year that they are collaborating to provide up to $40 million of venture debt to technology startups in Indonesia. 

In other moves, Philip Yeo, former chairman of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, has joined Genesis’ advisory board. 

Genesis was founded by Ben J Benjamin, Dr Jeremy Loh and Martin Tang in 2019.