(Oct 7): AP Moller Holding A/S, which controls Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk A/S, is opening a new office in Singapore to invest in growth companies in Asia.

The firm, funded entirely by the billionaire Maersk family with no external investors, will open the office — its first outside of Denmark — this week. It has more than US$50 billion (RM204 billion) of net assets.

“Asia is at the forefront of global innovation,” said Chetan Mehta, head of growth investing at the firm, who is going to lead the Asia office. “As many of these world-leading late-stage startups are looking to expand, that gives us an opportunity to provide them the long-term funding.”

The Danish investment company is looking to take minority stakes, typically €20 million (US$22.4 million or RM91.9 million) to €80 million, from Series C startups to IPO-stage firms and beyond, Mehta said in an interview. 

The startups will mostly be in the applied technology sector, such as AI supply chains, fintech, healthcare and robotics. The firm will be looking at firms across China, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, he added.

In Europe, AP Moller Holding is an existing investor in French online healthcare platform Doctolib, Finnish satellite maker Iceye and UK fintech giant Revolut. It led the €80 million equity funding round of UK neo-bank Zopa in 2024, and is the largest shareholder of Danske Bank A/S.

“We are investing our own money without a hard exit deadline nor fund life, so we can be really flexible and support the startups along their growth journey,” Mehta said.

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