New Delhi, May 5 -- Fintech-focused global investment firm QED Investors, which started investing in Asia in 2020, expects to deploy nearly $250-300 million in the region over the next five years, a top executive told VCCircle.

The Virginia, USA-headquartered investment firm, which has expanded in Asia by investing in Indonesia and Singapore, has so far deployed $220 million in the region, Sandeep Patil, Partner at QED and Head of Asia, told VCCircle.

"It has been an expansion strategy going country by country," said Patil. "Expanding to the developed Asia-Pacific market... Japan and Australia in particular, is the next phase of expansion. With that, the footprint in Asia Pacific becomes wider."

In India, the investment firm has backed Refyne, FPL Technologies (OneCard), Upswing, Jupiter, and Efficient Capital Labs among others.

It has invested about $20 million outside India. It has invested in two companies in Indonesia-Pashouses and Skor Technologies-and one in Singapore. It recently backed Habitto, a Japan-based digital bank for younger Japanese people, as part of a Series A round. It is looking at opportunities in Australia, too.

"We believe we will find the right set of opportunities which will allow us to invest between $250-300 million in the next five years," said Patil. "This capital would be from fund VIII and future funds."

QED closed its eighth fund, raising $650 million for early-stage investments and a $275-million early- to growth-stage fund in 2023.

Until a few years back, the firm's focus was on early-stage investments, primarily at the Series A stage. However, QED is now expanding as a multi-stage investor, with plans to back companies in Series B and C stages as well.

"It's an evolution in our strategy and it's not a change," Patil said. "We started the Series A fund, we were very comfortable there-it was sort of our homeground. But we'll also look at Series B and Series C opportunities."

At later stages, picking a winner amid 'clone wars'-where clones of a winning idea will emerge-becomes easy, explained Patil.

"As a VC, either you take a bet on a team or choose to take the more patient approach and just wait to see which of these companies looks like. We find picking those companies at the Series B stage is far easier, far simpler, because the metrics will then tell you which is the best company," he said. "Under the current market circumstances, Series B and Series C also have very attractive risk return profiles for us," he added.

QED aims to back two to four companies every year in the Asia-Pacific region. The initial cheque size will range from $3 million to $20 million, with investments now ranging from seed to Series C. In terms of themes, embedded fintech and artificial intelligence are crucial areas for the firm.

However, the majority of the capital will be directed to India, where it aims to back companies building for the top 250-300 million people.

"India continues to be a very important geography for us. It's a large part of the investments that we have made so far, and we don't expect that to change," said Patil. "India, I think, has a phenomenal opportunity, provides phenomenal opportunities to invest in innovation, and we continue to be passionate about it."

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.