Gree Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Japan-based digital media company Gree, has closed its second fund at $67m, DealStreetAsia reported today, citing senior investment manager Nikhil Kapur.
Founded in 2011, Gree Ventures operates out of offices in Japan and Singapore, and typically invests between $300,000 and $3m in each portfolio company. Its parent company, which was founded in 2004, has interests in social media and online games and advertising.
Kapur told DealStreetAsia: “Our fund philosophy is pretty simple. Invest in founders and companies that will be the next set of large internet businesses in Asia, while encouraging cross-border collaboration within the region.
“We want to do this by playing an active role with the team from an early stage of the business and help shape the company towards its goal.”
The fund, AT-II Investment Limited Partnership Fund, was oversubscribed from its $60m target, according to DealStreetAsia, though Gree Ventures’ website states the fund is sized at $70m.
With the second fund, Gree Ventures will look to expand its focus from Japan and Southeast Asia to India, where it has already invested in fashion rental service Flyrobe and female social media platform PopXO.
The country is not yet a priority however. Kapur said: “Most of [the fund’s capital] will be used in Japan and Southeast Asia.
“Given that we are mostly investing in seed and pre-series A stages, and also want to invest in not more than 30 companies across Asia so that we can spend enough time with each one of them, the capital requirements are not too high. We, of course, want to double down on the companies that we like.”