Golden Gate Ventures

In late 2011, Vinnie Lauria, Jeffrey Paine, and Paul Bragiel launched a $10 million venture capital fund to invest in early-stage technology companies in Southeast Asia. The initial fund drew commitments from angel investors in Silicon Valley and Asia, especially Japan. In addition to making investments, Golden Gate Ventures hosts events such as SuperHappyDevHouse, WalkAbout Singapore, FailCon Singapore, Founders in the Bay, Social Innovation Camp Asia (Kuala Lumpur) and OpenCoffee Club-Singapore. Golden Gate Venture investors include Dave McClure (500 Startups), Aaron Patzer (Mint.com), Russel Simmons (Yelp.com) and Darius Cheung (tenCube.com). In 2015, Golden Gate Ventures launched a $50 million second fund when it initially closed on $35 million in capital from investors including Temasek and Eduardo Saverin. In 2016, the company closed on its $60 million fund, surpassing the original target of $50 million. Investors included Korea’s Hanwha Life Insurance, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, and Germany’s Hubert Burda Media.

The firm invests in early-stage start-ups that already have launched products and validated market traction in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In addition to these areas, the partners invest in companies where they can add value. As of end 2013, the firm has invested in over 15 companies. Golden Gate Ventures' investments span consumer Internet, mobile, infrastructure and Software as a Service. The firm has been accredited as a Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS) incubator by Singapore’s National Research Foundation since March 2012. A notable investment of the firm, RedMart, closed US$5.4M in funding, from Facebook.com co-founder, Eduardo Saverin.