Boutique corporate advisor and fund manager, the Aura Group, has continued its expansion into Asia with the recent opening of its Bangkok office. The establishment of the Bangkok office demonstrates the group's commitment to become one of the first international corporate finance & investment firms with operational coverage across the region. Situated at The Interchange 21 Tower on Sukhumvit Road, the new office will focus on facilitating Aura Group's rapid growth into Southeast Asia, and provide a local presence for its wealth management clients.
Talking about the start-up scene in Thailand, Schwin Chiaravanont, Executive Director of Aura states that "the Thai start-up ecosystem has proven to be a fruitful ground for cultivating innovation. Besides accommodating numerous incubators, accelerators, and VCs, a fundamental driver for this scene is the large corporates that have placed innovation at the forefront of their corporate strategies to confront the disruptive wave of new technologies and business models." He adds that, "as both investors and corporate advisors, we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to further work with young companies and large corporates seeking assistance in this space."
Aura Group's growing interests in Southeast Asia is highlighted by a recent investment by its Australian VC fund the Aura Venture Fund ILP into MC Payment, a leading Pan Asian payments solution provider, headquartered out of Singapore.
"The allocation of resources to Southeast Asia over the last year has continued to demonstrate significant returns." comments Mr. Charles Wong, Aura's Head of Asia. "To enhance our group's presence and expand our investment portfolio, as well as capitalize on support by our strategic investor, the 2W Group, Thailand was a logical next step. We are now actively looking for senior executives in the country to bolster our team."
With the addition of the Bangkok office, Aura Group will now be present across four offices across three countries - namely Australia, Singapore and Thailand. The Group employs over 40 full time staff, and oversees approximately Bht 5 billion of funds under management and advisory, spanning 30 portfolio and affiliate companies.
As a further testament to its growth in the region, Aura Group has recently announced the launch of TNB Aura Fund 1, a SPRING Singapore backed Bht 1,250 million fund which will invest into Seed and Series A/B rounds in start-ups across Southeast Asia – with a focus on frontier technologies, namely Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Thai team will work closely alongside Aura Group's offices in Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne.
Classic examples of Aura Group's unique approach to investment and advisory include Freedom Insurance and Catapult Sports (ASX: CAT).
In the former case, Aura served a wide range of roles including as a seed investor into Freedom in 2010, its corporate advisor for its 19.9% investment into Noble Oak Life Limited, its M&A advisor on its acquisition of Spectrum Wealth, and its corporate advisor for its imminent listing on the ASX. Through this period Aura also supported as a debt-facility provider and supported two convertible bond note raises in 2014 and 2016.
Aura similarly took an early stake into Catapult Sports (ASX: CAT), a world leader in tracking and analytics of elite athletes, where Aura led its Series A round in 2013, advised its subsequent acquisition of the industry's second largest player GPSports, acted as its corporate advisor on its ASX listing, and recently collaborated with Goldman Sachs on a AUD 100m equity raising to finance the acquisition of XOS in the US, and PlayerTek in Ireland.