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Golden Equator Capital Revs Up Venture Investments Business

Tom Burroughes

10 October 2019

, the Singapore-based investment house, has appointed a figure involved in creating family offices in the region, among other activities, to be a partner in its venture investments team.

Pooja Gurbani’s responsibilities include mentoring portfolio companies and maintaining strategic partnerships across the innovation and investment communities, Golden Equator said yesterday.

Gurbani has more than 20 years of experience managing different types of investments in financial centres in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Prior to joining Golden Equator, she was most recently managing her family office where she oversaw investments in various asset classes and developed a keen interest in investing in new innovative businesses.

She has mentored and invested in start-ups including Canopy, an online wealth management platform and Amazin’ Graze, a healthy snacks and breakfast delivery company. Gurbani Pooja is also an advisor to Green Monday Ventures – a private equity fund investing in ventures that resolve existing and potential global issues such as climate change, food insecurity, health, and animal welfare.

While managing her family office, Gurbani advised several family offices in her network on their investments and helped them to secure private investment deals. She also helped establish two Asian multi-family offices: Crossbridge Capital and Fusang.

“Pooja will be a valuable addition to the Venture team with her global experience and perspectives, having strong track record working with and advising startups, and her keen personal interest in health- and impact-related investments would provide fresh perspectives for us in identifying opportunities," Daren Tan, managing partner, venture investments at Golden Equator Capital, said.

Golden Equator Capital runs the S$120 million GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund, with co-manager Korea Investment Partners. In September, the GEC-KIP fund announced a $2.3 million investment in leading Vietnamese PropTech Rever and a $2.5 million investment into Southeast Asia’s top digital talent agency Gushcloud International. To date, the fund’s portfolio companies include Indonesia’s fashion e-commerce platform Sorabel and Singapore’s online-to-offline PropTech platform Ohmyhome, Golden Equator said.