Temasek-backed blockchain VC firm to start new investment fund: Report

Superscrypt, a blockchain and Web3-focused venture capital firm backed by Singapore’s state-owned investment firm Temasek, is reportedly seeking a $100 million capital raise to establish a new investment fund.

According to Bloomberg, unnamed sources revealed that Superscrypt and fintech firm Republic will be joint partners in the proposed fund, which has not been finalized and is still subject to change.

Temasek made headlines in 2022 after the government-owned firm lost $275 million in the implosion of FTX.

One year earlier, in 2021, the firm purchased a 1% stake in FTX for roughly $210 million. Additionally, Temasek acquired a 1.5% minority interest in FTX US — a separate entity — for $65 million.

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Temasek and the collapse of FTX

Following the collapse of FTX, representatives of Temasek said that despite months of scrutinizing the former exchange’s financial statements and probing potential regulatory risks, the firm found no signs of fraud or red flags.

The fallout from the FTX bankruptcy also caused the ruling party of Singapore’s government to face public criticism for its inability to accurately probe the company’s risks before the collapse and its failure to protect investors from financial loss.

At the time, Lawrence Wong, the former deputy prime minister of Singapore, remarked that Temasek’s heavy losses due to the FTX collapse damaged the investment firm’s reputation among market participants.

In May 2023, Temasek slashed the compensation of several corporate executives responsible for investing in FTX, who took personal responsibility for the poor investment decision. The investment firm also conducted an internal investigation, which found no evidence of deliberate misconduct by its team members.

While the $275 million loss created a significant backlash against the state-owned investment firm, the financial shortfall represented only 0.09% of Temasek’s $293 billion assets under management at that time.

Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Softbank, and other venture capital firms that invested in FTX were subject to a class action lawsuit in August 2023. Plaintiffs for the lawsuit argued that these VC firms “aided and abetted” fraud at the exchange.

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