International fintech-focused venture capital firm Life.SREDA signed a memorandum of understanding with Leonie Hill Capital (LHC), a Singapore-based private equity fund, to become strategic partners in the the area of investments into financial technologies (FinTech) in Asia.
According to the MOU, LHC intends to become a strategic investor (limited partner) in Life.SREDA’s Asian FinTech fund, while Wee-Meng Thoo, Head of Investments at LHC, will be joining Life.SREDA team to be a part of fund management company, which already includes Vladislav Solodkiy and Igor Pesin. The contract should be signed after the deal is approved by MAS. The investment amount can make up to several dozens of million USD, while the total size of the fund is US$100M.
Life.SREDA is one of the first FinTech-only non-corporate venture capitalists in the world and is well-known in the FinTech space due to more then 20 successful investments, including such iconic fintech brands as Simple, Moven, SumUp, Fidor, Anthemis, Lenddo etc. At the beginning of 2015 Life.SREDA moved its headquarter to Singapore in order to focus on the investments into booming Asian FinTech market. Besides investment activity Life.SREDA is also well-known through own respectful semi-annual fintech report “Money of the Future”.
Leonie Hill Capital is a Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) in Singapore oversees by a management team with more than 60 years of experience across the Global markets, with offices in China, Korea, Japan and USA, with more than USD$2B under management. LHC’s businesses include global Hedge Fund and Private Equity.
Recent investment by LHC was MyRepublic, an internet service provider and telco in Singapore, New Zealand, and Indonesia, which will become a synergetic partner to the Fund’s fintech portfolio.
Among the first investment targets, Life.SREDA and LHC are highlighting a newly formed fintech platform BAASIS, technologically backed by Fidor, a German-based licensed digital bank, which will create a pan-Asia Bank-as-a-Service platform, headquartered in Singapore.
BAASIS will provide a core banking infrastructure for fintech startups and other non-banks in Asia and act as a middleware between traditional banks and fintech ecosystem. BAASIS investment will strengthen a strategic role of Life.SREDA and LHC in boosting Fintech development in Asia and Singapore and taking it to the new level.
Life.SREDA’s CEO and Managing Partner Vladislav Solodkiy, states that “Life.SREDA, being a very focused and selective VC, is always looking for strategic partners among regional leaders, who can bring significant value through their local expertise and knowledge.
Leonie Hill Capital is one of the most experienced and successful players in the investment space in Asia, that is why it’s an honor and pleasure for Life.SREDA to partner with them. Combination of our deep global Fintech knowledge and expertise and their understanding and network on Asian market will make our team unique and very effective to make successful investments on the largest and fastest FinTech market in the world”
“Our partnership with Life.SREDA will greatly enhance our strategy to identify and invest into the most promising trends, technologies, and startups on the market” – says Arun Kant, CEO of Leonie Hill Capital – “
FinTech is definitely one of the most promising and perspective investment segments in Asia and Slava Solodkiy and his team are among the most experienced and knowledgeable people in this space. Our investment experience and capacities, coupled with their fintech background, will move the whole fintech ecosystem in Singapore to the new level.”
