It has been another incredible year of deal activity for the Kindrik Partners Singapore office, with 74 closed deals (c.f. 47 in 2018). 

amount raised

• Our Southeast Asia clients raised over US$206m worth of capital.
• The average raise was US$2.7m, with a median raise of US$1m. 
• A few hero raises such as Indonesian healthtech Alodokter’s US$33m series C really pushed the average above the median raise.

While we enjoy the excitement that goes with these big headline grabbing deals, our team takes huge satisfaction from the speed and (low) cost at which we can turn out and close a high volume of pre-seed, seed and Series A investment deals (which are still the life blood of startup financing).  

pre-money valuation

• The average pre-money valuation for equity transactions was US$30.7m.
• The median for equity transactions we saw was US$4.7m. 

Like the average and median raise sizes, the average pre-money valuation for our companies were distorted by a few hero deals.

investment instruments

Equity (shares) was the most common investment instrument in Singapore. As in previous years, most pre-seed investment transactions and a majority of non-institutional seed rounds in Southeast Asia were made using convertible notes.  The KISS note being the most common type of note used. 

looking ahead in 2020

Though it’s too early to see what impact COVID-19 will have on capital raising in Southeast Asia, we’ve had anecdotal evidence that business travel has dampened in the region.

Although the region remains active, numbers may fall below what we saw last year as overseas investors delay travel to the region, and investors and founders shift more towards remote working tools such as videoconferencing to build trust and confidence through the capital raising process.

[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020.]