Novo Tellus Capital Partners

Loke Wai San, co-founder and managing partner, leads the firm alongside partner Keith Toh. The investment team includes vice presidents, associates, and venture partners with engineering and operating backgrounds, and an operating partner, Rob Chen, supports portfolio company engagement.

The firm relies on its reputation as an operator-led investor within the Indo-Pacific technology and industrials sector. Novo Tellus structures deals that require deep operational involvement—privatisations, divisional carve-outs, and management buyouts—which often originate from relationships with business leaders rather than broad auctions.

Novo Tellus operates as a private equity firm managing external capital, not a single family office. It solicits limited partners, maintains a portfolio of direct investments, and has previously sponsored a SPAC listed on the Singapore Exchange.

The firm concentrates on direct investments, structuring transactions as buyouts, growth equity, PIPEs, and privatisations. There is no indication in its portfolio that it makes fund-of-fund commitments; its model is built around active, concentrated positions in a small number of companies.

Novo Tellus targets growth-stage to mature companies requiring operational transformation, recapitalisation, or succession solutions. Deal structures include management buyouts, take-privates, divisional carve-outs, large-shareholder PIPEs, and growth equity investments, all within the technology and industrials supply chain.

Novo Tellus focuses exclusively on the technology and industrials sector of the Indo-Pacific. The firm does not invest in consumer internet, financial services, real estate, or healthcare services outside of medical consumables linked to the supply chain, keeping its portfolio tightly aligned with its operating expertise.

Novo Tellus primarily leads or controls its own transactions rather than co-investing alongside other private equity firms. Its deal structures—privatisations, PIPEs, and buyouts—are designed to give the firm direct influence over company operations, making passive co-investment a less central feature of its model.