The office will be led by managing director Abhay Havaldar, and will grow GA's investment activities in Southeast Asia. Nick Nash, a vice president with GA, has relocated to Singapore from New York to join Havaldar as part of the Singapore team.

Nash said: "Southeast Asia is home to some of the world's most successful family and entrepreneur-owned businesses. GA's flexible approach of serving as a growth-oriented shareholder is ideally suited to the long-term partnership these companies value."

The Singapore office is GA's tenth office globally and its fourth office in Asia, joining established offices in Beijing, Mumbai and Hong Kong. GA opened its first office in Asia in 1999 and has invested nearly $2 billion to support the growth of two dozen Asia-based companies. Recent investments in Asia include IndusInd Bank, a bank and financial services provider in India; Asian Genco, a hydroelectric power production company in India; Tenfu, the leading tea brand and retailer of tea products in China; Sun Art Retail Group, China's largest hypermarket; and SouFun, the largest online real estate portal in China.

General Atlantic was founded in 1980 and invests approximately $2 billion annually in growth equity capital on a global basis, typically from $50 million to $500 million per investment.