Cathay Innovation, a VC firm that invests in digital entrepreneurs across Europe, China, and the US, has raised €500 million (US$550 million), over our original target, for its second fund, according to Dealstreet Asia.

Investors who invested in Fund II are European Limited Partners (LPs), including Valeo, Cardiff BNP Paribas Group, Telefonica, SEB Groupe, Michelin, Total, Groupe ADP.

The VC firm shared that it will use one-third of its funds to invest in European investments, another third in Chinese investments, and the remaining one-third for investments in American and Southeast Asian companies.

In June 2019, Cathay Innovation had raised US$346 million for its first fund.

Additionally, it prepares to raise a much larger close by the end of 2020, without revealing further details.

Cathay Innovation has already made two investments in the region: the first in Jakarta based fintech startup FinAccel, followed by Singaporean insurtech startup Igloo (formerly known as Axinan).

Sailing through SEA

Despite the global health crisis, both local and foreign VC firms in Southeast Asia remain committed to investing in the region’s startup ecosystem.

Recently, together with the announcement of its new CEO Donald Wihardja, Indonesia-based MDI Ventures also announced the upcoming launch of its newest funds. The firm has branched out to investing beyond its home country.

In April, e27 covered at least 29 early stage funding rounds and more than five later stage funding rounds in the ecosystem. While these funding rounds may have been closed before the pandemic hit the region hard, it may indicate investors’ trust on the potential of the ecosystem.

In a contributed post, Anu Shah explained that the US VC industry has existed over a period of 50 years and has weathered many storms previously.

“So it is needless to say that there were and have prepared for this in some ways,” he wrote.

However, he also warned against a possible slowdown in the near future.

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Image Credit:  Joonyeop Baek

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