Daily Briefing: Temasek and UOB invest US$200m in venture debt firm InnoVen Capital; Blockchain monitoring startup Merkle Science raises $1.1m in seed funding round

And investment holding company UMS to acquire shares in JEP for $6.58m.

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore-based venture debt provider InnoVen Capital has announced raising an additional US$200m in capital commitment, with the city state’s investment arm Temasek and United Overseas Bank each contributing US$100m.

InnoVen Capital, which has offices in India, China, and Singapore, said the additional commitment will help it tap the potential in Asia’s venture debt space.

InnoVen Capital was formed in 2015 with the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank’s business in India by Temasek Holdings and UOB where both had committed US$100m each to the paid up capital of InnoVen Capital.

The firm provides debt financing to high growth and innovative tech startups, and has since supported over 200 start-ups, with over $500 million in financing. It offers multiple debt capital solutions, including venture debt, acquisition finance, growth loans, working capital facilities, and others.

Read more here.

From e27:

Singapore-based blockchain monitoring startup Merkle Science today announced a $1.1m (US$804,000) seed funding round led by LuneX Ventures and SGInnovate.

Digital Currency Group, Kenetic, and Entrepreneur First also participated in the funding round.

For LuneX, which is a dedicated fund for blockchain investments by Golden Gate Ventures, the funding round is the first lead investment it concluded since its appointment to SGInnovate’s panel of co-investors, under the Startup SG Equity scheme.

For Merkle Science, the funding will be used to build their technology and expand their sales team across Asia.

Read more here.

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore-based investment holding company UMS Holdings Limited (UMS) is making a mandatory conditional cash offer to acquire the remaining issued and paid-up shares of its associate company SGX Catalist Board-listed JEP Holdings Limited (JEP) for $6.58m (US$4.81 million).

The latest offer made by UMS on May 13 will be done via a “married” deal of 43.84 million sale shares from SGX-listed Ellipsiz Ltd, which currently owns approximately 10.9% of JEP.

Ellipsiz Ltd is a local-based electronics company specialising in distribution and testing of probe cards. UMS, listed on Singapore Exchange (SGX) Mainboard, first acquired a 7.48% stake amounting to 109 million shares in JEP, a precision engineering company, for $5.7m, or $0.05233 per share on 15 January 2018.

This was followed by another acquisition of 320 million shares on the next day at $0.07 per share, or $22.4m.

Read more here.