Vietnam-based Mekong Capital announces funding plans for 12 firms, plans to explore BioTech opportunities.
Following a US$246 million fund that closed in 2021, Mekong Capital shares further investment plans for 12 companies, and will be using reserve capital follow-on funding.
Having placed emphasis on the consumer sector, the private equity firm is exploring BioTech opportunities, including two recent investments including spore-based probiotics company LiveSpo and genetic testing business Gene Solutions. The Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV) also invested in biomass technology firm Entobel and PropTech startup Rever.
Chris Freund, the Founder and Partner of Mekong Capital commented, “Both of them show that you can get really good scientists in Vietnam, who can create great products. Gene Solutions, in particular, may become a global success story.”
He added that the firm’s investment decisions are based on company founders, including “a proven business model, and [their ability to] build a strong management team that is pulling for our vision-driven investing.”
Mekong Capital’s “Vision-Driven Investing” (VDI) approach encourages and supports investees to actualise their business vision through applied operations strategies, whether that be optimising their team, customer service capabilities, digital adoption, or other measures.
Freund celebrated a few of their portfolio companies’ success over the course of the pandemic who doubled their revenue through applying VDI strategies and swift online adoption, including household and environmental goods manufacturer Mutosi, English language school YOLA, and mattress retailer Vua Nem.
The founder also shared that Mekong Capital will be making some divestments, and that “Markets globally are in a pretty liquid situation. From a cyclicality perspective, it’s a pretty good time to be doing some exits now.”
Freund concluded, “Mekong Capital is betting on financial services company F88, which plans to list next year, as the next Mobile World. F88 and pharmacy retailer Pharmacity are the two biggest contributors to the growth of MEF III. It’s been always possible to sell things [in Vietnam]. The only cases where we struggled were where one of the key founders or shareholders of a company was uncooperative, which [was] sabotaging our exit. I don’t expect that to happen with our current investments.”
Featured banner image credit: mekongcapital.com
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