Life.SREDA Fund Enters Southeast Asian Market

According to DealStreetAsia, the Life.SREDA foundation will be relocated to Singapore. Also, some fund portfolio companies will move there. In the Southeast Asian market, Life.SREDA will explore the prospects for working with startups.

In addition, Singapore intends to restart the Life.SREDA II fund. It is planned to raise $ 100 million in order to further expand its influence on the region's fintech market. Back in October, information appeared that a second fund had been opened, which was negotiating with potential investors from China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

LifePay's portfolio company also entered the Asian market and acquired the iboxPro payment service, which is launched in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. According to rumors, the deal amounted to $ 10 million. It is planned that LifePay will operate in Southeast Asia and Russia.

Below are the statements of the Life.SREDA fund manager Vladislav Solodky about the reasons for the move, which he told the editors of Zuckerberg Will Call.

1. In order to develop fintech, you need to have finance in the country (there are four financial centers in the world - New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, Moscow is not a financial center) and tech.

2. According to statistics, it is necessary that SMEs be developed in the country (its representatives actively use innovations - both individuals and legal entities). In Russia, its share in GDP was already small, and is now declining. In Asia, it is the backbone of the economy.

3. We considered many options. The US has a large market and great potential - but many players. In Europe there are many complex and not the largest markets and also quite a lot of players. Africa - really want, but far and not very clear. Asia - there is not a single global western player in the market, and there are few local ones, plus, by capacity it is the largest and fastest growing market

4. In general, the relationship to innovation.

• From the state. The UK Treasury Department has been inviting us to London for a year, but in the end we did not dare - fintech was singled out in separate priorities of national importance in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

• On the part of the media (excluding CPU).

• On the part of the population. There everyone wants to be entrepreneurs, in Russia it is not an honor to be an entrepreneur, everyone wants to be government officials, or work for Gazprom and Rosneft.

5. Quality of life. In Singapore and Hong Kong, they traditionally occupy the best places in the respective ratings - in terms of ecology, education, safety and so on - Moscow does not.

6. In the end, they first decided to Singapore. (since they most of all ultimately offered state support and investment in us from the state, plus, it is best to develop the markets of Southeast Asia from Singapore), but then we will still make a hub in Hong Kong (it’s best to go to China from there), just a little later.