Today, we look at a legacy fund.

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A simple thing to ask of any government-backed venture fund is this, how much money has it actually returned?

To its investors, that is.

Venture is a long game, where a fund’s life typically runs 10 years, with an extension of a year or two on top.

I’ve written about some of our legacy funds before, but that was on Q3 2023 data.

This time, I have an update on the Gobi Mavcap Asean SuperSeed Fund.

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Tonight’s edition covers: an exit from Creador’s food portfolio, an update on Involve Asia’s redemption exercise, and Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) search for more alpha.

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So let’s get to it.

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When DealStreetAsia published on Monday that VC firm 500 Global was scaling down its ambitions in Southeast Asia, the news didn’t come as much of a surprise to me.

Aside from its US headquarters, 500’s other prominent office is here, at the AICB in Kuala Lumpur, sandwiched between Bank Negara and the Asia School of Business.

Its managing partner, Khailee Ng, is Malaysian, and he and the firm have been quite the fixture in the local VC space for some time.

But it’s been a tough year, not only for Malaysia, but the entire region, in terms of fundraising and exits.

Of course, a VC’s business is a VC’s business.

Who cares whether one grows or shrinks? They are too small to matter in the grander scheme of things.

Except when there are millions in government-linked money running through its veins, like that of 500.

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Readers will know that our awesome government-linked investment companies (GLICs) are a mainstay here.

It’s not that I love writing about them.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t wake up to a wall of GLICs/GLCs, throw a dart to see where it lands, and then use that as a newsletter starting point.

There are days where I want to write about my top ten favourite nasi lemak stalls.

Or why the great abbreviation BLR (banana leaf rice) has turned so blergh.

But GLICs, GLCs and Big Brother are just gifts that keep on giving.

Someone did say, “the government is helping you write the stories”. I can’t disagree.

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In December 2017, Xeraya Capital led a €9 million (RM45 million) Series B2 funding round into Allecra Therapeutics.

The French biopharmaceutical company developed a novel combination antibiotic, Exblifep, designed to combat drug-resistant urinary tract infections.

Xeraya, the specialist life sciences venture capital arm of Khazanah Nasional, secured a seat on the board and took a hands-on role in steering the company’s clinical development and global market entry strategy.

The investment initially appeared to be a success when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Exblifep in February 2024.

This was to be a milestone for Xeraya, showcasing how its long-term financial backing and active stewardship had successfully ushered a life-saving therapy onto the global stage.

Triumph, however, was short-lived.

A year later, Allecra collapsed under the weight of commercialisation costs and filed for bankruptcy.

A French insolvency court accepted a binding asset bid in July last year, which was finalised on October 29.

Exblifep’s global intellectual property and commercial contracts were transferred to Indian generics manufacturer Orchid Pharma for a fraction of its development cost.

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This was supposed to be newsletter no.2 yesterday but life got in the way. Still, I’ll show up anyway.

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Dealmakers are parched. It’s a drought in the Malaysian VC/PE scene with some already writing off VC for now.

“VC’s dead, bro,” one industry source tells me.

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