Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital enters Singapore with US$100 million to invest in Southeast Asia start-ups

Vulcan Capital, the investment house of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has opened its first international office in Singapore. The multibillion-dollar fund intends to invest an initial US$100 million across Southeast Asian start-ups.

Vulcan Capital is an unusual addition to the city state’s investment scene. It is part of Vulcan, which oversees the billionaire’s holdings and supports his causes in everything from elephant conservation to artificial intelligence research. Chief Executive Officer Bill Hilf channelled his late boss’s methodical approach when Vulcan took almost three years to decide on Singapore as an Asian base.

“Before we take a step into Singapore, we know everything about it; we know every university, we know every politician, the politician’s friends,” Hilf said, describing the cautious approach. “That’s because we hold Paul, his family name and the Vulcan reputation as a sterling brand.”

Allen died in 2018 and left a US$26.1 billion fortune behind, an estate that some experts predicted could take years to sort out. Hilf said the process of shifting Vulcan from a management company to an estate trust may take close to a decade to complete because of the complexity of businesses it oversees.

The Seattle-based company plans to use the nine-figure allocation in Singapore to back tech start-ups in Southeast Asia, making it one of the largest early-stage platforms in the region. The firm has hired financiers Tommy Teo and Minjie Yu as managing directors to lead the Singapore outfit. They will focus on seed, Series A and Series B investments in a broad range of areas including financial services, real estate technology and consumer internet, according to Teo. Their initial target markets will be Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.