US$25 million Asia technology investment fund unveiled

SINGAPORE, 19 May 2000 - The formation of iAsia Alliance Capital was announced today by John Vogelstein, president of Warburg Pincus & Co., and Teo Ming Kian, chairman of the NSTB.

Capitalised at US$25 million (S$43 million), iAsia Alliance Capital will focus on seed and early stage start-ups in the areas of software technology, wireless communications, e-commerce and IT services.

Its geographical coverage will be the Asia Pacific region, with strong linkages to Singapore.

The investment size per company is expected to be in the range of US$0.5 million to US$2.5 million.

The fund will foster an environment in which Singapore develops its role as a regional hub for entrepreneurial Intellectual Property (IP)-based technology business and as a magnet for global entities to base their regional headquarters.

Warburg Pincus, the global private equity investment leader, will work closely with NTSB to identify and promote the development of IP-based technology businesses in Singapore and throughout the Asia Pacific region. They will also provide additional support to nurture appropriate companies for further funding.

Managing director of iAsia Alliance Capital, Thomas Yeoh, said, "The iAsia Alliance Capital network can help investee companies work toward an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on NASDAQ and other international stock exchanges, provide long-term perspective to build the investee companies' business, and work with them beyond the IPO to bring these companies to the next quantum level of growth."

Yeoh added that the fund supports the vision of a leadership role for Singapore in the nurturing annd building of indigenous world-class IT companies capable of competing in the global marketplace.

The investment criteria for iAsia Alliance Capital focuses on companies with strong business fundamentals that intend to address sizeable markets. These companies would have a solid business plan to take a major share of the market, and a strong management team that can execute the plan.

The fund will focus exclusively on opportunities that are directly related to or enabled by the information technology industry.

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