Singapore’s Government-Backed Investment Firms Make Global Moves

In Singapore today, investment and acquisition activity is picking up.

First up, Linklogis, a supply chain financing service, raised a $220 million Series C led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the Government Investment Corporation (GIC). The round is the third for the Shenzhen-based company which raised a $30 million Series B in 2017. The company has raised a known total of $265.1 million, according to Crunchbase.

Further west, another government-backed Singaporean investor, Temasek, has acquired Sygnia, an Israeli-based cybersecurity startup, for a reported $250 million. According to TechCrunch, Sygnia will likely provide services for Temasek’s portfolio companies and operate as an independent entity.

These two events, spearheaded by Singaporean government-backed investors, peaked my interest. In what companies and where geographically have the two firms invested in 2018? Let’s find out.

According to its Crunchbase profile, GIC has taken part in 18 known investments in 2018, leading 8 of those rounds. Its industry focus is relatively agnostic, investing in companies ranging from Doordash all the way to its most recent investment in Linklogis.

Temasek, on the other hand, has made 39 known investments in 2018, leading 22 of those deals, according to Crunchbase. Like GIC, the firm’s investments range in genre.

Notably, both GIC and Temasek have invested in large Chinese companies. Both participated in Alibaba fintech affiliate Ant Financial’s massive $14 billion round in Q2 2018, and GIC led Luckin Coffee’s $200 million Series A in June 2018. According to Temasek’s website, 27 percent of the company’s portfolio companies are based in Singapore, and 26 percent are based in China. Temasek led China-based robotics company Rokid’s $100 million round in January 2018 as well as Shanghai-based ed-tech company 17zuoye’s $250 million Series E in March 2018.