Epsilon Venture Partners, the Singapore-based venture capital and private equity firm formed by former Intel Capital managing director Sudheer Kuppam, has reached the first close of its $350m fund, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday.
Kuppam joined Intel Capital, the corporate venturing arm of semiconductor technology provider Intel, in 2000, moved up to managing director in 2007 and departed in 2015 to form Epsilon.
The firm’s pan-Asia technology fund achieved a first close in March this year, Kuppam told DealStreetAsia, and he expects it to reach second close by the end of 2017, with a final close planned for Q1 2018.
The fund has so far invested in Cloudyn, a Japan-based cloud storage provider apparently different to the Israel-based company acquired by Microsoft last month, as well as enterprise communication startup Ubiix, cloud services provider Pi Data Centres and fresh produce supplier FarmTaaza.
An undisclosed pension fund is the anchor investor for the fund, and Epsilon is speaking to sovereign wealth funds, family offices and high-net worth individuals to raise the rest of the money.
Epsilon plans to target companies operating in India, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, with Vietnam and Indonesia cited by Kuppam as its two key markets in the latter region.