SINGAPORE - State investment firm Temasek Holdings has tied up with lender UOB to offer up to US$500 million (S$686 million) in venture debt loans over the next five years to Internet startups in China, India and Southeast Asia.
Together, the potential market size for venture debt in the three regions is some US$2.2 billion (S$3.0 billion), said UOB citing a EY report.
Temasek and UOB will each commit up to US$100 million of paid up capital to the joint venture, InnoVen Capital, which will be based in Singapore.
Upon regulatory approval of the deal, Temasek and UOB will each hold a 50 per cent stake in Innoven, which will have an issued and paid-up capital of US$60 million.
In April, Temasek made its first step towards building what it called a "pan-Asian venture lending platform" by acquiring the Mumbai-based venture debt unit of SVB Financial Group and renaming it InnoVen Capital India.
InnoVen plans to establish subsidiaries in Singapore and China in the coming months.
From these offices, InnoVen will offer loans to venture-capital backed startups in sectors such as technology, consumer, healthcare, and clean technology who have at least gone through a Series A funding round, said UOB yesterday.
