Singapore-based venture capital firm TNB Aura (TNBA) is in talks to raise capital for its third fund, with a corpus expected to be bigger than the predecessors, a top executive said.
TNB Aura is looking to double down on investments in Vietnam in the next few years.
“Through applying some of the research and learnings from our investments in Indonesia and other more mature markets, we foresee TNBA making a lot more investments in Vietnam. TNBA expects to make another 5-7 investments into Vietnam over the next 18 months,” said Vicknesh R Pillay, founding partner, TNB Aura, told DealStreetAsia in an interaction.
The firm has made 8 investments in total in Vietnam over the past 3 years. Typically, TNBA allocates 20-40% of its fund corpus towards Vietnam.
“With many horizontal opportunities in Indonesia disappearing, Vietnam has yet to produce candidates in verticals which have created unicorns as seen in more mature markets such as Indonesia, India and China. For example, we have seen multiple social commerce companies targeting tier 2 and 3 cities in Indonesia, though Vietnam has yet to see many companies at scale in this sector,” Pillay said.
“In our view, many tech trends are yet to emerge from Vietnam which we foresee to be an exciting country for investments over the next few years,” he added.
Vicknesh R Pillay (left) and Charles Wong (right), Co-Founders & Managing Partners, TNB Aura
Most recently, TNB Aura joined the $17.1-million Series A funding round in Vietnamese earned wage access (EWA) startup GIMO. Earlier, the firm led a $6-million funding round for edtech startup VUIHOC.
TNB Aura has established a Scout initiative to tap into early-stage opportunities in Vietnam. Last year, TNB Aura Vietnam Scout partnered with ThinkZone Ventures to launch the Global Minds Accelerator programme to co-invest, mentor, and support Vietnamese tech startups.
Edited excerpts of the interview:-
