Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Invests In Enterprise Blockchain Firm R3

Temasek Holdings Pte, a state-owned investment firm in Singapore, has invested in Blockchain Software Company and the global banking group R3. The Singapore company has reported a portfolio of around S$308 billion (USD 235 billion) in Asia since spring 2018.

Today Bloomberg cites an “inside memo” whose substance was supposedly affirmed by a Temasek representative who highlights the company’s wide speculation methodology from October 2018. It appears that Temasek reacts to a changing worldwide investment landscape by centering on state-of-the-art advances such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

This strategy allegedly involves the creation of “experimental pods” focusing on investments in blockchain technologies and AI, two areas that the company views as “long-term” trends affecting multiple industries worldwide. The memo shows that last May Temasek was one of over 40 institutes that invested over $107 million in R3 as part of a Series A collective fundraiser, one of the largest investments in distributed ledgers technology (DLT).

Temasek’s spokesperson told Bloomberg in private correspondence that the company is focused on “remaining nimble and well-positioned to capture opportunities that deliver sustainable value over the long term.”

In addition to its R3 investment, the exact amount of which is undisclosed, Temasek also participated in a $600 million C series financing round in April for the Chinese AI startup SenseTime.
In specific, the huge South Korean Internet enterprise Kakao Corp has just set up a subsidiary in Singapore to obtain cryptocurrencies for foreign investment.

In other domestic messages on cryptography and blockchain, the Central Bank of Singapore declared that it would amplify its administrative framework for payment providers to bring certain crypto currencies beneath its jurisdiction. The new enactment is due to become active at the end of 2019.

R3 is a DLT solution advisor to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) giant post – trade infrastructure, which has replaced its Trade Information Warehouse based on DLT. The Trade Information Warehouse offers event processing services for approximately 98% of all credit derivatives transactions worldwide and the project entered its testing phase on 6 November.