Singapore-based venture capital firm Forge Ventures has closed its inaugural fund at approximately $21.9m with backing from a number of corporate limited partners (LPs), e27 reported yesterday.
The vehicle, which was oversubscribed, received commitments from social network operator Facebook, holiday rental property marketplace Airbnb, payment processing software provider Stripe, online marketplace Carousell and food delivery and digital payment service Grab.
Qoala, Kopi Kenangan, Fabelio, GajiGesa and Funding Societies are also among the vehicle’s LPs. It is expected to invest in 15 companies – particularly in Singapore and Indonesia – leading pre-seed and seed rounds, supplying about $750,000 for each.
While sector-agnostic, the fund will have a general focus on financial technology and ‘category-defining’ companies. Founded earlier this year, Forge had initially been targeting a raise of between $15m and $20m.
To date it has made three investments, in digital hospitality concierge platform Vouch, tutoring business Marathon and grocery delivery service Dropezy, which are respectively located in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.
