Daily Briefing: Private capital raising platform CapBridge gets $5.54m investment; Build environment sector receives a $20m boost.

And GEC-KIP Fund invests $3.2m in Vietnamese proptech firm Rever.

From DealStreetAsia:

Singaporean private capital raising platform CapBridge will receive a $5.54m (US$4m) investment from South Korea-headquartered Hanwha Investment & Securities, according to an announcement.

The investment was reportedly made to “facilitate the growth of private market ecosystem in Southeast Asia and South Korea.”

Hanwha Investment & Securities, a part of business conglomerate Hanwha Group, provides services in the areas of asset management, brokerage and acquisition of stocks, bonds and derivatives.

Meanwhile, CapBridge’s private capital platform 1exchange (1X) is Singapore’s first and only private securities exchange, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Earlier this year, CapBridge told DealStreetAsia that the company expects to double its investment offerings to $2.77b (US$2b), to serve roughly 100 clients by the end of this year. The platform offered $1.24b (US$900m) investment offerings last year.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

The built environment sector received a $20m boost to go green on Wednesday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong announced at the opening of the inaugural International Built Environment Week (IBEW), organised by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Wong said that the top-up of the funds will encourage more collaboration between the built environment industry and the research community. This is to support BCA’s drive toward Super Low Energy (SLE) buildings, which BCA has said will be the “next generation of green buildings."

The additional grant provided by the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) can be used by companies in the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) set up by BCA in 2014 and that had an initial grant of $52m, also from NRF.

The aim of this cluster is to experiment with, exhibit and exchange knowledge of energy-efficiency solutions with stakeholders.

Over the past five years, GBIC has supported a total of 32 projects including a six-storey, Super Low Energy building housing an operations centre at the upcoming Tuas Terminal mega port that is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of next year.

Read more here.

From e27:

GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund (GEC-KIP Fund), a $120m (US$87M) venture fund launched last year by Singapore-based Golden Equator Capital and Korea Investment Partners, has invested $3.2m (US$2.3m) in Vietnam’s proptech platform, Rever.

The investment will help the Ho Chi Minh City-based startup to deepen its presence in the home country, where over 200,000 real estate transactions take place each year.

The proptech company plans to open 30 additional large experience centres within the next 18 months to better serve its clients and start expanding into key markets such as Hanoi and other coastal cities, it said in a press statement.

The funds raised will also further enable Rever’s continuous efforts in building on its technology, valuation engine, recruitment drive, and operations to improve customer experience and operational excellence.

This marks GEC-KIP Fund’s second investment into a proptech company in the region. In September 2018, it led a $4m (US$2.9m) round in Singapore’s Ohmyhome.

Read more here.