Japanese company’s Daiwa Securities Group set up USD $ 30 million venture capital fund in Myanmar to invest in local startups

Tokyo-headquartered investment bank Daiwa Securities Group has seeded a US$30 million venture capital fund in Myanmar to invest in local start-ups.

Daiwa subsidiaries Daiwa PI Partners Co and Daiwa Corporate Investment Co have established the Daiwa Myanmar Growth Fund, with Japanese life insurer Taiyo Life Insurance Co as a partner. It will mature in 12 years with an investment period of five years. 

The fund will provide growth-capital to private firms by taking minority stakes of 10-30pc, focusing on consumer goods as well as services, telecommunications, infrastructure and logistics industries. It will also seek to “secure a meaningful influence on the corporate governance” of those companies by taking seats on company boards.

Daiwa PI Partners has been expanding its private equity investments in Myanmar since June 2017. In March it invested in Yangon-based e-commerce platform Royal Golden Owls.

It has also been involved in deepening Myanmar’s equity market. The Yangon Stock Exchange was launched in March 2016 as a joint venture between Daiwa Securities Group and majority-owner state-run Myanma Economic Bank (MEB).

In the same year, Daiwa subsidiary Myanmar Corporate Strategic Advisory, a listing advisory firm founded in late 2014, was liquidated to allow the Japanese group to focus on its role as an underwriter and broker on the stock exchange.

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/japans-daiwa-sets-fund-myanmar-start-ups.html )

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