[T]hat the sum of money refers to a separate fund focusing on acquisitions, and adds that deals have already been made. These include the buyout of LivingSocial’s Southeast Asia business, all the brands under the iBuy umbrella, and Says.com. Catcha Ventures is an entirely new fund focusing on minority-stake investments.Catcha Ventures has been founded to address a lack of funding for business that have matured from a start-up and entered their “growth phase”. Like in Australia, Asia too has its challenges when it comes to Series A and beyond funding activities. Whilst the seed stage and angel investment activities statistically are on the rise, a fund of this size will significantly boost the profile and traction of startups in the South East Asia region that Catcha Group is targeting. Currently the group has IPO'd four of its portfolio companies since it started in 2007. Recently one of those company's iProperty Group, attracted AUD$106.3 million in investment from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation via REA Group. It is the largest investment in a South East Asian internet company to date. iProperty Group has operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, as well as investments in India and the Philippines. Theinvestment gives iProperty Group a value of approximately US$600 million, also making it the most highly-valued publicly traded company in Southeast Asia. Grove said that the challenges faced by companies in their growth phase are inherently different from those encountered by startups; and that Catcha Ventures will deploy a unique mentorship program, underpinned by Catcha Group’s network of seasoned high level managers. “We have enjoyed enormous benefits from knowledge sharing between our companies and will deploy the exact mentorship and investee community management model across our Catcha Ventures portfolio companies. We will pair each investee company with a senior mentor and advisor from within our group to help them navigate challenges as their business grows," said Grove. "Chances are, for any digital business encountering growth related issues in South East Asia, a company within our network has already successfully resolved that same challenge. Funding is one thing, but this experience and access to our network of executives and advisors is both invaluable and unique." According to a statement, the group is already in the midst of locking down its first couple of investments using this new fund.
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Catcha Group is about to invest up to $100 million into high growth stage startups in South East Asia
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