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Axiata Digital sells Ventures portfolio to Pegasus in USD140m deal

Axiata Digital (AD), the digital services arm of Axiata Group (Axiata), is to sell its Digital Ventures portfolio for USD140 million to Singapore-based investment fund Pegasus 7 Ventures.

The sale consists of ownership stakes in category-leading digital businesses such as India’s largest rural commerce platform, StoreKing, and global micro-insurance company, BIMA. Pegasus which is managed by Gordian Capital, will aim to drive the growth of the portfolio under the leadership of Gautam Saxena, an 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 seek to 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.” says Gautam Saxena, Founder Pegasus 7 Ventures. 

“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,” says Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO, Axiata Digital. 

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

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