Investment fund to grow and manage Axiata Digital’s ventures portfolio

• Pegasus will accelerate value creation by scaling these companies
• Axiata Digital will focus on Boost, ada and Apigate

AXIATA Digital Sdn Bhd (AD), the digital services arm of Axiata Group Bhd (Axiata), has entered into an agreement to sell its Digital Ventures portfolio at a valuation of US$140 million (RM578.38).

The sale consists of ownership stakes in category-leading digital businesses such as India’s largest rural commerce platform, StoreKing, and global microinsurance company, BIMA, to a Singaporean investment fund Pegasus 7 Ventures Pte Ltd (Pegasus 7) managed by Gordian Capital.

Pegasus will drive the growth of the portfolio under the leadership of Gautam Saxena, a seasoned senior investment banker and former head of Asia Telecom and Media with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Ventures portfolio is largely focused on companies that innovatively address the needs of underserved consumers and encompass services such as micro-insurance, online to offline (O2O)/rural commerce, e-commerce, last mile solutions for banks and e-mobile virtual network operator (e-MVNO) segments.

Pegasus will accelerate value creation by scaling these companies and enhancing their access to global financial, strategic and operational partners.

The portfolio companies currently under management are StoreKing, BIMA, FreedomPop, 11street and etobee with operations across Asia, US and Africa and co-investors that include Allianz X, Kinnevik, Millicom, LetterOne, Intel Capital, Atomico, Mangrove Capital Partners, LeapFrog Investments and Kejora Ventures.

“It is a pleasure to partner with Axiata Digital on a portfolio which addresses emerging market needs, with distinct solutions and innovations for those at lower income groups. These companies are poised to scale significantly and create value for their stakeholders while continuing to make positive impacts in underserved communities.

“The addition of these assets to the Pegasus 7 portfolio is synergistic with our thematic focus and will serve as an enabler for our future growth path,” said Pegasus 7 Ventures founder and chief executive officer Gautam Saxena.

“The partners in Pegasus 7 understand our vision, our markets and our portfolio companies which we’ve built to focus on our ecosystem of telco and digital assets. We strongly believe this handover will ensure the assets continue to thrive through access to our customer base, joint marketing and other synergistic activities,” said Axiata Digital chief executive officer Mohd Khairil Abdullah (pic).

In the meantime, Axiata Digital will continue to focus on its three core verticals which include digital financial services (Boost), digital advertising (ada) and digital platform (Apigate).