C31Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Singapore-based property developer CapitaLand, ceased operations in 2019, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
CapitaLand formed C31 Ventures in 2016 with approximately $74m of capital, of which roughly 20% had been deployed. The unit had disclosed six direct investments including e-commerce consultancy Ace Turtle, retail sampling service B8ta and Chope, the operator of a restaurant booking management app.
C31’s portfolio also featured retail data technology developer Omnistream, and Mobikon, the mobile commerce platform now known as Subtra, as well as co-working space provider The Great Room.
The unit had additionally committed $11m to Singaporean state-owned National Research Foundation’s Early Stage Venture Fund III, and CapitaLand has served as a global network partner for one of software provider Microsoft’s Accelerator.
The move came after Lee Chee Koon was appointed CEO of the CapitaLand group in September 2018 and mandated a strategic shift for the following year.
C31’s founding team has left and it has not conducted any deals in the past two years, according to one of the sources. Most recently, Shannon Lee Chaluangco departed from its parent company in August 2019 after more than two years at the unit, first as an investment manager and then as team lead.
CapitaLand did not disclose further plans for C31 Ventures but told DealStreetAsia: “[The firm] continues to support business partners including tech companies that complement the group’s real estate business and provide the group with strategic capabilities.”
